The nights before we were
by Moola Deena
Summary: A shaky travel towards trust. The road goes through childhood memories, old time friends, old time enemies, mutual determination, hate, love, everyday troubles and one shared goal. AU. Narusasunaru. Yaoi in later chapters.
1. Prologue

**A/N: **Okay folks, so I finally pulled myself together and started to work on something new. Am I not a good girl now?

Seriously, I'm not sure about this story at all. I don't really know what I want to do with it, even though I kind of know _how _I want to do with it… I know, it's weird. It is usually the other way around, ne? But you know, just put up with it. It's me we're talking (writing) about, for God's sake! Since when was I normal in a good way? I'm always normal in the bad ways (which doesn't show when I write) and strange in the bad ways (which shows a bit _too much _when I write).

So, if this chapter doesn't make any sense, then it is perfectly alright. No panic, no crying, no killing the author. This is the prologue. It isn't written to make sense (even though it's not written to _not_ make sense either), so please do not worry. The first part written in _italics _is one of Sasuke's memories, and I will (most likely) begin every chapter with one of those.

The rest of the chapter is parts of Sasuke's life about two-three years before the current timeline (which doesn't show at all in this chapter seeing how this is a prologue). It is set in whichever big city you want in a world similar to our real one… Even though it's possible that it is slightly different, so let's just say that it is a fictional world extremely inspired of our real-life, every-day one, okay?

**Warnings: **Character deaths! Two of them! And mentioning of massacre. Some foul language. That's it for this chapter, but it will most likely turn up some yaoi/shounen-ai (don't know the difference. If someone has the time I would be happy if you could explain it to me) later on, and (of course) my usual barely-understandable writing-style. Ahem. Well yes. I just might feel murderous and kill off even more characters later on as well, so please be prepared.

**Pairings: **None in this chapter. Haha, I'm not even mentioning any! … Err, there will be future narusasunaru, though. And probably more couples (at least mentioning of them), but they're not decided upon just yet. We'll see, I mean; not even _I _really know what I want with this fic. It's totally plot-less as for now.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Naruto-series, or any of its characters. I would like to, though, but I don't think Kishimoto-sensei will give it to me… That would be a bit too much to actually hope for, ne?

* * *

_**Prologue**_

_Sasuke jumped up from the kitchen floor when he heard the door slam. His brother was home!_

_Smiling, he ran down the corridor to the hall and threw himself at his brother, who just barely had time to catch the small body before it crashed down on the floor._

"_Nii-san! You're home!" Sasuke declared happily, unaware of the fact that his brother just had saved him from an utterly shameful, noisy and slightly painful incident._

_Itachi lifted an eyebrow as he looked down at the little boy in his arms._

"_So it seems", he said while he put down the younger boy, a small dose of irony tinting his voice. "Would you please stop clinging at me now, otooto, or else it will be hard for me to take off my shoes."_

_Sasuke pouted at his brother's indifference, but backed obediently away from Itachi anyway. Itachi sighed soundlessly and kneeled on the floor to easier reach his feet._

"_Was there something you wanted to tell me, Sasuke, or did you just suddenly feel the urge to attack me for no reason at all?" Itachi asked coldly._

_Sasuke began to shine and blushed slightly of excitement, at once forgetting that he was sulking._

"_Nii-san! Mother and I made the dinner today, Nii-san. And I helped!" Sasuke more or less bounced before his older brother in impatience of receiving praise from Itachi._

_Itachi rewarded Sasuke's pathetic attempt with one glance before he rose and went for the stairs._

"_First I went out buying tomatoes, salmon and rice", Sasuke exclaimed as he followed Itachi up the stairs, stubbornly ignoring the fact that he was being ignored. "All by myself!" He was quiet for about two seconds to see if he had impressed his brother the slightest with this fact. He obviously hadn't, but Sasuke was not one to give up easily._

"_Then I came back here, and Mother let me cook the rice." Alright, so he maybe hadn't cooked the rice all by himself, his mother had after all helped him along a little. No need to tell that fact to Itachi however. They had reached Itachi's bedroom door now._

"_And now I've even made the salad", he finished off proudly. Itachi's slim hand neared the doorknob. "It is tomato-salad, Nii-san. Isn't that great?"_

_This made Itachi pause. Slowly he turned around and looked down at his little brother who hopefully looked up at him._

"_Hn." Itachi disappeared into his room without further evaluate what he had meant with that rather non-commentarial comment._

_Sasuke felt disappointment flood over him, and for a while he just stood there, staring at the closed door._

_A frown appeared on his childish face for a short moment before he shrugged it off. His brother was surely just tired. Just tired. Some rest and he would be in the mood to be with Sasuke again._

_But Sasuke couldn't really convince the nagging feeling in the back of his head to go away, to leave him alone. To not disturb him. That annoying feeling that had just grown stronger and stronger during the past few weeks. The feeling that wouldn't stop telling him that lately his brother seemed to have less and less time over for Sasuke._

* * *

Sasuke opened his eyes and stared out in the darkness.

Something had disturbed his sleep. He wasn't completely sure what exactly, but he didn't like it at all. Not in the least. He slowly sat up in the couch he had been sleeping on and narrowed his eyes, piercing through the darkness. He listened carefully, but the only noise he could make out from around him was the soft breathing of Chouji on the floor.

A feeling of sudden restlessness made him come to the decision of getting up and fetch a glass of water. He moved without a sound across the room on bare feet, not in particular trying not to wake Chouji up. He didn't care if the boy did or not. It wouldn't make much of a difference to him.

No, he just moved like that – soundlessly, gracefully. It was his natural way to walk, to move. It wasn't something he had learned. Most of the time he tried to move sloppier and noisier, for the simple reason that he didn't want people to know that he could move at such speed and so quietly without even trying. It was an advantage he didn't want others to know about.

Now, however, there was no need to neither trying to make more noise than necessary, nor to sneak around. Chouji had after all worked with him for some time now, and he knew all about Sasuke's abilities of walking quietly.

He made it to the kitchen door before he froze, with all his senses strained to maximum. There it was again. That feeling that had waked him up to begin with.

Sasuke frowned slightly to himself and tried to pinpoint what it was.

He hadn't smelt anything funny, nor seen anything out of the ordinary – and his night sight was phenomenal so that was not a problem. There was no noise of anything but the silent humming of the fridge, Chouji's breathing out in the living room, the neighbours moving around in the apartments surrounding their own. A quick glance at the clock informed him that the movements were nothing strange – it was 05.38 after all, and the woman living next door had a dog that usually moved around in her flat at this time, and the guy living above them worked nights from time to time. Maybe he had just arrived home.

Nothing was off, but still… there was _something_, some disturbance in the air… something out of place… something not as it should be…

"Fuck."

He practically flew into the living room.

"Chouji! Get your lazy ass up and out right now!"

He heard some ruffle around on the floor behind him as he threw on some clothes and started in half-panic throw down random stuff in a bag he found beside the couch he had slept in less than five minutes ago.

When he was done he turned expectantly around and saw that Chouji still hadn't gotten up.

"What the fuck are you doing?" he growled. "We need to get moving. _Now!_"

"Why?" Chouji asked in a sleepy voice.

"They're after us. Now _get the fuck up!_" Sasuke snapped, moving out to the hall and over to the door. He most certainly was _not _going to get caught. He pressed an ear against the cold wood and listened carefully, his whole body tense, ready to block an attack at any second. He could hear steps out there. _Three floors down, at the most_, he thought. They were coming.

_Dammit! I had thought we were better hidden than this. Apparently we can't trust Shikamaru's brains as much as I thought… or hoped really. Stupid me. It was just pure luck I woke up in time. Otherwise they would have caught us for sure… which they might do now anyway…_

Furious at himself he moved away from the door and walked into the living room again. To his great relief he saw that Chouji now were fully dressed and ready to get going. Good. Some improvement in their situation. Now, time to escape. Gracefully.

Alright, maybe not. There is no way one can run away gracefully, not even if you were named Uchiha Sasuke. Gracefulness was for other situations, when the pressure weren't as intensive as right now.

His black eyes darted across the room, searching for a way out and fell on the window – he didn't want to go there. After all, they _were_ on the eighth floor. Even he had his limits.

However, they needed to get out. Right. Now.

Putting up a façade that indicated security he stalked forward to the window and opened it.

"No way", he heard Chouji mumble behind him and he swirled around, sending the other a death glare.

"Have you a better idea? Then please speak up, because I'm not too happy with this either."

He didn't wait for a response; they did _not_ have time for this. He slung the bag over his shoulder and turned determined to the window again. With fluid movements he got up on the window sill and propped out his head, looking down on the street below.

The sun was already rising – meaning it would be easier for them to see where they put their hands and feet, but it would also be easier for people below to spot them climbing on the house wall. This was bad.

He didn't care though – dammit, he didn't _have time_ to care. He turned his face upwards instead. It was only two floors up to the roof. Maybe it would be easier… but still. What would they do once they got there? Then they would be stuck and found and caught and… He felt his stomach sink to the floor. Right. Climbing down to the street. Great plan. He grimaced slightly and got out of the window fully.

* * *

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow.

"Where is he?"

Sasuke didn't answer, but simply brushed past the other man and went into the apartment. Shikamaru did not give in to the black haired boy's cold behaviour; he was after all rather used to it, and followed him into the bathroom.

Sasuke stripped of his shirt, went to the sink and began to wash off his face. He didn't feel like talking about it right now.

"Where's Chouji?"

Apparently Shikamaru was in a totally different mood. He felt like chatting about the brown haired man. Ask stupid questions. Couldn't he see that Sasuke was busy? He had been on the run for 74 hours, dammit! Why couldn't he just leave him alone?

He still ignored the other man, dried his face on a towel and turned to leave the room.

Shikamaru obviously wouldn't have any of that. With a snarl he slammed the slightly shorter man up against the wall and stared at him angrily.

"Where. Is. He."

That definitely wasn't a question.

Sasuke considered for a moment to simply bash the other's face in. It wouldn't be too much of a big deal. Both he and Shikamaru were well aware of the fact, that if the young Uchiha decided to go complete Hulk-smash, then Shikamaru would be dead and forgotten within half a minute.

What stopped him from doing that, however, was not the fact that he was tired – seeing as to how he hadn't gotten any sleep in the last 51 hours, nor the fact that Shikamaru was considered something as close to a friend as he had left in his life. No, it was that _something_ that flickered past in Shikamaru's eyes. A something, that he didn't really feel like pinpointing, even though he didn't doubt that it would be done easily if he just felt like it.

Shikamaru and Chouji had always been close.

_Close._

They had been friends.

Had been – yes, for even though Shikamaru was a genius, he couldn't possibly find a way to befriend the dead, could he?

"He won't come back. He didn't move his ass fast enough."

Shikamaru stared at him for a second, before his grip on Sasuke's shoulders slackened. Sasuke pushed past the other man and disappeared out the door.

Chouji lived no more.

The bastards had shot him down in the middle of the street 33 hours after they had left their hide-out.

* * *

He and Shikamaru had swapped hide-outs four times in six days. This left the Uchiha in a darker mood than usual, which said something as he usually walked around with a dark cloud constantly hovering above his head. Now the cloud was black and sent lightning bolts at anyone except Shikamaru who was within a radius of 10 feet from him. Shikamaru was allowed to come as close as 6 before he was met by the Glare of Death.

Not that they actually met too many people during these six days. Sasuke spent most of his time (except when they moved to another place) lying on the floor, staring at the ceiling.

He and Shikamaru didn't mention Chouji again, as if they had entered a silent agreement upon this. In fact, they didn't speak about anything at all. The only time they said anything to the other was when it was time to move out, and Sasuke knew that they wouldn't have spoken even then if it wasn't necessary for them to communicate swiftly at such times.

He didn't feel guilty for Chouji's death, and he knew that Shikamaru didn't really blame him either.

Still, he had a feeling that Shikamaru wished that it had been Sasuke – not Chouji – dying that fateful day. It wasn't a secret that Shikamaru didn't like Sasuke. He didn't _dislike_ him either, for that matter. They were completely and totally neutral toward each other – just as Sasuke liked it.

In that way they could work with each other without any feelings getting in the way.

Sasuke didn't like feelings. They had a tendency of breaking you down. And Sasuke didn't like to be broken down. At least not by something as petty as feelings.

Shikamaru spent as much time in front of his computer as Sasuke did on the floor.

They were waiting. Waiting for something to happen. Because they both knew that something was going to happen, sooner or later. Sasuke personally would have preferred sooner, seeing as how he was a man for action. He got restless by being locked up like this.

For the time being, they were hidden in a small dark room. It felt so cliché that they always had to end up in one-room apartments, small dark rooms, cold basements under sky-scrapes with at least 30 stories or scabby hotels above brothels. Always. Without failure.

And at the same time, it felt good. It was something he could count on, something to come back to. Even though it never was the exact same place, it always was similar enough to calm him down.

He closed his eyes and listened to Shikamaru's fingers racing over the tangents. He wondered if Shikamaru ever regretted entering this life.

He wondered if Chouji would have climbed with him out of that window if he had gotten a second chance.

* * *

He climbed out of the smashed car on shaky legs. Something warm and wet trickled down his temple. He touched his forehead with a trembling hand and looked at his fingers. Red. Right. Blood.

Was he bleeding?

He tried to remember the last time he had bled, but the memory was too dim, and he felt too tired, so sleepy. He couldn't bring himself to concentrate.

He looked up at the car again. It was barely recognisable as a car any longer. Rather an over-grown trash bin or something similar. He frowned slightly.

Something in the back of his mind prickled. Had he forgotten something?

He walked up to the car again, and looked in through the broken window. There, behind the steering wheel, sat Juugo. He was slumped over the wheel, not moving. He was covered in blood, and even more was flowing out freely from a big gash in his head. Sasuke wondered vaguely how much blood it fit in one human body.

Juugo's eyes stared blankly down in his lap.

Sasuke stretched out a pale hand – paler than usual, funny, seeing how Chouji had often compared his skin-colour to virgin snow, even though it had been a bit over-dramatic – and touched his shoulder lightly.

Nothing. He didn't even breathe.

Juugo was dead.

And he was caught.

* * *

He woke up in a bright white room. Weird. He didn't remember the last time he had been in an un-dark room. He reflected lightly over the word 'un-dark' (did it really exist?) before he decided that it was inconvenient and looked around the room, without moving his head.

He was in a hospital. A blonde woman sat in the chair beside his bed. The slightest frown graced his features before he smoothed out his face to the same expressionless mask it always held.

He didn't recognise this woman.

She didn't look at him, which maybe wasn't that surprising, seeing as how he hadn't moved yet, so she probably thought he still was asleep… unconscious… whatever.

Her long, fair hair was pulled up in two rat-tails. She was clad in ordinary-looking, casual clothes and had currently her eyes fixed upon a bunch of papers that rested in her lap.

He turned his face toward her. Immediately, she reacted upon him stirring, and looked up at him.

"Ah, you're finally awake." She had a pleasant voice. However, Sasuke got the impression that he was stuck in deep shit.

She laughed softly at his suspicious look.

"That's right, I haven't introduced myself, even though I've been by your side every day for almost a week."

Sasuke lifted a defined eyebrow – barely – at this. A week? He had been out for almost a week?

The blonde smirked slightly. This unnerved him a bit – something that didn't show on his face, however, this woman really did creep him out, even though she hadn't actually done anything… yet.

"My name is Tsunade. And you are Uchiha Sasuke. Funny, seeing as how you are dead since 11 years."

This definitely made him panic. He stared at her with wide eyes. How the fuck did she know that?

She simply smiled at him.

"Uchiha Sasuke. You are already officially dead, died during the Uchiha-massacre 11 years ago along with everyone else sharing your bloodline. This made you safe. You could easily become a high-level criminal without anyone ever suspecting you… seeing as how you were dead. However, if this fact ever slipped out-"

"What do you want?" he interrupted rudely.

She went silent and looked at him. He looked back. The minutes went by, stretched out to an eternity and he choked on the pressure of space, the space in the nothingness that was his, and only his, now filled up by this woman – this Tsunade – with caramel eyes and green coat. And the fact that she knew.

She _knew_ and that gave her infinite power over him, because he couldn't let that slip. He couldn't let anyone else know. However, how did he know that no one else did? If this Tsunade had some way or another figured out his secret, then what were his insurances that no one else had?

She seems to understand his doubts.

"No one else knows, because I haven't told them. And I wouldn't know if I hadn't been able to lay hands on you. That gave me the proof right underneath my nose."

He nodded. He didn't ask how she'd been able to guess that he was an Uchiha, though. If she'd taken some DNA-test… He didn't think that he was registered like that in any database anyway… but he had been so little. He didn't really remember.

"What do you want?" he repeated.

She smiled, wickedly.

"I'll be nice to you. You _have_ a choice, after all. I won't tell anyone of your identity whatever choice you make. The first option is to work for me. Under the government. For good purposes. You are perfect for the job. You have experience, is officially dead _and _we can help you to keep it secret. You will get better paid than before and will no longer need to hide. You can live a normal life… at least more normal than before – and-"

Once again he interrupted. "Contract killing. You want me to become a hit man?"

She nodded.

Sasuke closed his eyes and let his head hit the pillow.

"What is option number two?" He didn't really want to hear the answer to that question, did he now?

"Death", she said solemnly. "We can't let you go lose like that, without restrictions. And it will be carried out whether your true identity is known or not."

He laughed dryly. Oh? That was a nice way to put it.

He opened his eyes slowly and turned to Tsunade once again.

"So you don't give me a choice then. Not really."

She scowled at him, but didn't protest.

He nodded slightly to himself. _It can't get any worse now, can it?_

"You're on. I don't have anything better to do anyway. I guess there won't be much of a difference. I'll be your puppy that bites only on command."

The corner of her mouth turned upwards.

"Puppy? Uchiha, you're underestimating yourself. If anything you're a raging beast temporarily under my command."

* * *

**A/N: **Review? Please? I would like to know what you think… and where you want this fic to go, because I have no idea myself, really.


	2. Chapter 1

**A/N: **Here comes the next (first) chapter of _The nights before we were_. I know it took some time. I can only hope that you haven't lost interest (quite a few have put this story on their alert-list! That makes me happy!). I might as well tell you that it will be some waiting between the chapters. I still have no idea where this is going, and no one has felt the urge to help me with a plot. Not to worry though, I'm sure it will turn out fine… (Yes, I know. I'm pretty good at being overly optimistic.)

I know I wrote in the prologue that you could put them in whichever city you want… That still goes! But I really wanted to name the places and in order to do so without picking a city myself I decided to take some names from the manga…

The first part in _italics_ is one of Sasuke's childhood memories, just as in the prologue.

**Warnings: **Um. Some foul language. Death. Nothing bloody or graphic in any way. And it's just OCs… or what you want to call it… Future yaoi/shounen-ai (still don't know the difference).

**Pairings: **There will be narusasunaru. One-sided sakusasu.

**Disclaimer: **Not mine. And for everyone else's sake; let's hope Naruto never will be.

* * *

_**Chapter 1 – The life in-between and a little underneath**_

_Sasuke ran along the streets. He was a bit late, but if he hurried up he would be home in time for dinner. His mother would most likely scold him for making her worry, but she wouldn't actually mean the harsh words (that would be whispered into his ear by that soft and caring voice while she held him tightly in that surprisingly strong embrace) and afterwards she would kiss him on the cheek and give him a cherry tomato before dinner._

_He smiled to himself and sped up a little – eager to get home to his mother's warmth and the safeness of her arms._

_He turned around a corner and stopped dead. Their house was dark. He couldn't detect any signs of life in there. He wrinkled his eyebrows and walked up to the house. This was weird. Even if his father and maybe even his brother were out looking for him, at least his mother should still be home cooking._

_He groped around in his bag until he found his key and inserted it in the door, trying to unlock it. It didn't work._

_The door already was unlocked._

_He scowled a little and pushed the door open. Not one noise. The house was completely quiet, completely empty. He was alone in there._

_It shouldn't have bothered him so much – because he _was _8 years old, after all. He was old enough to be home alone._

_What did bother him, though, was the complete lack of explanation as to why he was alone. Where was his family? They should all be here by now; he _was _late home after all. And if no one was home, why was the door unlocked?_

_He called out. No answer._

_He went through the dark rooms into the kitchen. Nothing. Looking around as if expecting his mother to suddenly jump out from a cupboard, saying "ta-da" in a sing-song voice, he came to the conclusion that they must have went out looking for him – all of them._

_He picked up the phone and dialled his mother's cell phone number. He blushed slightly in shame for having them so worried about him._

_As the signals connected, he could hear a happy little melody beginning to play somewhere in the house. Sasuke frowned at this, not knowing what to think._

_Hesitantly he followed the sound of the happy tunes, still clutching the phone tightly in his now trembling little hand._

_The melody came from the master bedroom. The door was closed before him. He hung up. The melody from inside the bedroom went quiet._

_Taking a few deep, calming breaths, Sasuke stretched out his hand, gripped the doorknob and turned it, slowly pushing the door open._

_The walls were splattered with something dark, and a pool of the same black liquid covered the expensive deeply blue carpet on the floor. Sasuke didn't see this._

_Drowning in the pool of blood lay his parents. Sasuke saw this._

_Sasuke screamed._

* * *

Sasuke sighed, leaned back in his seat and looked out of the window on the world below. The plane went in for landing.

"Almost there now", Sakura smiled at him.

He threw her a glance, and his onyx eyes lingered on her brightly pink hair. He still hadn't gotten used to her having short hair. Seemed as if he would have to, though. He had asked her if she would let it grow out long again, and she had told him no.

"It got in the way all the time. Besides, I kind of like it like this." She flashed him a smile, her green eyes shining happily. "Some change in appearance from time to time is only refreshing, Sasuke-kun."

He hadn't mentioned her hair again. Dammit, it was just hair! Long, glossy, soft-looking hair with possibly the most exotic colour he'd ever seen. It was so totally against every single rule nature had about hair colours, and still she made it look pretty.

He had often thought that Sakura was a beautiful girl, but he couldn't bring himself to fall in love with her. Over the two past years that they had known each other he had developed a feeling of protectiveness toward her. He wanted to keep her safe, but he couldn't love her in the way he knew she loved him.

She was his best friend. Being her boyfriend would only make him feel awkward and out of place. He couldn't even imagine him and her in bed _like that _together. It was just too strange. It would feel like… sleeping with the sister he never had.

The plane's wheels bumpily connected with the ground and soon the seatbelt-signs were turned off. Sakura and Sasuke pulled out their hand baggage from the lockers above them and then waited patiently for the crew to let them out.

Sasuke hated flying. His ears always hurt _days _afterwards, and after longer flights his sense of balance would be messed up for several hours as well. This made Sasuke very much Not Happy.

Now, however, he hadn't had much of a choice. He and Sakura couldn't stay in Otogakure after what had happened less than two days earlier.

During Sasuke's whole career under Tsunade, he had only acted in Oto. He had first been paired up with Hatake Kakashi, who was to teach him how things worked now that he actually had to carry out his assassinations in some kind of organized manner.

After a few months Kakashi had declared him ready for the real thing, and after that he had thrown himself wholeheartedly – body, mind and soul – into his new working circumstances. And it had all turned out perfectly. Tsunade _had _been right at that time at the hospital. Sasuke was designed for the job.

Until Tsunade assigned him for a two-man job, that is.

And so came Sakura. With spiritual, jade eyes, long bubblegum pink hair and creamy skin. She did not look like a hit man… woman… whatever.

But so… He did neither.

In the beginning, it hadn't worked out well. Sasuke had sent Tsunade uncountable requests to let him have one-man jobs only, or – if that was not possible – let him at least change partner.

Tsunade declined.

Sasuke roared.

Almost six months passed where Sasuke was only signed up to duo jobs with Sakura.

And he grew used to it.

He grew used to her.

And soon they were the perfect duo.

And she became his best friend. (He refused to see that her love for him was of a different kind, even though it was painfully clear.)

Soon he wasn't forced to work with Sakura all the time. He got single-jobs more often than not, and occasionally he would have to team up with others than just the pink-haired girl.

Sasuke understood that Tsunade's goal had been to make him used to teamwork. And she had succeeded.

Even though Sasuke still preferred to work alone, he had no longer an issue to work with others. And he and Sakura had just grown closer over time, until she one day openly declared her love for him. He had made it very clear that he did not love her back. His feelings for her were of another kind.

She had accepted this – something he was very grateful for – but told him that if he ever changed his mind, she would be there for him.

They had never talked about it again, even though Sasuke knew that she still felt as strongly for him.

He eyed the girl closely as they went to pick up their luggage. He wondered how much it cost her every passing day to keep her feelings for him inside.

Was he an expensive friend? Wasn't real friendship supposed to be for free?

Did this mean that he failed in being Sakura's friend?

His eyes once again travelled to her now-short hair. He knew that she had been proud of her waist-long hair. She had saved up for it during many years.

And still she hadn't hesitated to cut it off for his sake; less than two days ago, during their last mission.

They had been sent on an ordinary mission; stealing a top-secret document about some kind of machine that Sasuke neither knew anything about nor wanted to know anything about. He knew that the machine's code name was _Shiza_, however.

He had fucked up. He had been seen. And knocked out.

When he came to his senses, Sakura was in a fight with three guards. One of them had a death grip in Sakura's long hair, preventing the young woman from moving. Sakura held a small knife. He'd seen her killing a guy with it not even two weeks earlier.

Now, however, she used it to cut off her hair in order to be able to continue her fight to protect him.

He got mad.

He killed two of them, but the third escaped.

He cursed loudly.

Sakura dragged him away to fetch the document.

The alarm went off.

They ran. They ran fast.

Sakura placed a bomb in the building.

It was one hell of a bang.

They watched it from a rooftop nearby.

The pressure from the explosion forced them to take several steps back.

Tsunade had been furious. Because they had blown the damn paper up along with the building.

Sasuke didn't care too much about that. They had done the best out of the situation. Tsunade agreed, but she was still pissed.

And she sent them away from Otogakure. They would have to keep away from there for a while. Which was the exact reason why they now, side by side, walked into the pick-up area at Terminal 2, Konohagakure Airport.

Sasuke didn't mind. He had been in Oto for so long now. It would be nice with some change of environment.

"Yo", a lazy voice said from their left, right beside Sakura.

They turned toward the voice, expectantly.

"Ka-? Kakashi", Sakura said, surprised at the sight of the older man.

Sasuke understood why. As far as they knew, they weren't supposed to be picked up by anyone, but were supposed to take a taxi to the Office. And besides, the man had actually been there _in time _to pick them up. Kakashi was _never _on time.

The man simply smiled at them, the one dark eye that was the only visible part of his face curving upwards. "Why, you sound so surprised, Sakura. Did you think I'd just leave you youngsters in a new city, all alone and unguided?" He made a sound of mock-accusation. "How can you think so lowly of me, Sakura-chan?"

She just laughed at him. "Don't be stupid, sensei. You know that I know that you're here for another reason. It's not as if _I _haven't been here before, and I'm perfectly able to guide Sasuke-kun by myself. Why are you here?"

Kakashi gave an exasperated sigh. "I was almost-early to a meeting at Office. So I decided to use that extra time to pick you guys up and drive you there." He smiled brightly.

So… apparently he _wasn't _on time after all. No need to worry then.

Sakura rolled her eyes.

Sasuke felt like following her example.

He didn't.

* * *

Kakashi drove a small, blue Audi. The backseat was filled with porn-magazines and empty coke cans. Sasuke was not surprised. He had after all known Kakashi for some time now.

Therefore, he wasn't surprised when he noticed as Kakashi put on some music by Queen, that the car had loudspeakers that were a bit too… effective for such a small car.

Sakura, who sat in the backseat with all the porn, complained loudly. Sasuke just couldn't understand why.

_He _had just discovered that he shared seat with a condom that looked suspiciously used.

Honestly, he didn't want to know.

Kakashi ignored Sakura's complaints, turned up the music a little and told Sasuke everything he could possibly want to know about Konohagakure. That included the best strip clubs and where to get the cheapest crack.

Sasuke didn't point out to Kakashi that he didn't do crack. Most likely Kakashi knew, but told him anyway for the simple reason of entertainment. He was strange like that.

Kakashi was another connection between Sasuke and Sakura. They had both been taught by him. Sakura during a longer amount of time than Sasuke (he'd gotten the impression that it was about a year's time, even though Sakura never had told him) and long before Sasuke met Tsunade (Sakura had been a hit man(… woman… whatever!) for almost three years now). And he had the feeling that she had been tutored by Kakashi together with someone else. Sakura had never confirmed this either. And Sasuke had never asked.

As they had gotten to know each other, and realised the fact that they had had the same teacher, they had been able to agree upon one thing: even though Kakashi had weird looks – silver hair defying all the laws of gravity and always covering up his face with black masks (Who did he think he was? Some kind of super hero?) can't be described with another word – and had the bad habit of always being late and throwing bad excuses all around him, Kakashi still knew what he was doing.

The guy was a genius. And an excellent teacher.

And too damn clever for his own good.

Sasuke still remembered the shock he had felt when Kakashi had called him by his full name for the first time. Damn, no one but Tsunade and himself were supposed to know who he was.

Uchiha Sasuke. An Uchiha.

Somehow, during the months Sasuke had spent with Kakashi in the beginning of his career, Kakashi had figured the whole thing out.

Sasuke still wasn't sure how. Kakashi had given him a messy explanation about similarities, not found corpses and age.

Sasuke hadn't really got what he meant, but Kakashi had looked at him as if it was obvious.

He had never taken it up again.

Neither had Kakashi.

And after that Kakashi had been kind enough to call him by his supposed-to-be family name; Sharingan.

* * *

The building called Office was bigger than and not as run-down as the Office in Otogakure. It had two floors excluding the possibility of a basement, and white stonewalls which had turned a sickly colour of white-greyish due to the pollution all the cars driving past every day released.

It was located in the 'good' part of town. Sasuke didn't really care in what part it lay, but Sakura seemed to relax a bit at the fact.

Maybe the 'bad' parts of Konoha were even worse than those in Otogakure. He hadn't thought that possible.

Kakashi parked the car in a small parking-area behind a tall building on the other side of the road, and together they then crossed the street and marched up to the entrance.

Sasuke refused to acknowledge the nervous knot in the pit of his stomach.

His life was about to change. He could feel it.

He was about to meet a bunch of new people that he was to work with. And later tonight he was to see the new apartment Tsunade had gotten him. And tomorrow would be his first working day in this new city, Konohagakure, that was to be his home for who knew how long.

He smiled; meaning his dark eyes softened and the corners of his mouth turning upwards so little that it could just as well have been the trickery of the light. It was a Sasuke-smile.

He looked at the other two as they reached the door.

Sakura's green eyes met his. She smiled back. His didn't disappear until she turned her face away as she walked through the door.

He followed her into the building.

Yes, this was the unmistakable beginning of something new.

* * *

Naruto groaned as he walked into the lift and pressed the button. He hadn't been able to find Kakashi, and now was the old hag for a boss bound to be angry with _him _– the great Uzumaki Naruto – for not finding him.

Dammit, Kakashi was _always _late for meetings, why was this time any different?

He sighed loudly as the lift doors opened and walked out…

… and into a complete chaos.

He frowned at all the noise and at all the people tumbling around the room. What the hell were they doing? Had something big happened that he had missed out?

And that was when he spotted something pink in the mass of bodies moving around the small space.

_Sakura._

He felt something – a flutter? – in his stomach as he managed to catch a glimpse of her face in between two bodies. She was on the other side of the room.

And Kakashi was with her.

"KAKASHI-SENSEI!" he called out, furious, as he began to worm his way across the room. "Kakashi-sensei, you bastard, I have been looking for you all over town, and all the time you were hiding your sorry ass _here?_" He stopped in front of Kakashi and Sakura, glaring angrily at the former.

Kakashi's visible eye curved happily upwards in an oh!-I'm-so-happy-to-see-you smile.

"Hiding? And here I thought anyone looking would be able to see me from any spot in this room. I must have over-estimated you, kiddo. Maybe I missed out some important lessons when it comes to attention, hm?"

Naruto ground his teeth. "The old hag wants to see you", he bit out before he turned to Sakura who looked at him warily.

"Sakura-chan", he sang out with a wide grin, his previous attitude gone without a trace.

She smiled back, even though it looked a bit uncertain. "Hello, Naruto. Long time no see."

"Yeah. I heard you were coming back. Did you get hit by sudden home-sickness? Got tired of Oto?"

Her smile turned more sinister and she shook her head.

"No, I liked it there, even though… Well, I guess Konoha always will be the place closest to my heart." Her green eyes sparkled with affection for her home town. "But Tsunade needed me to come here for some time…" She looked a bit embarrassed for a moment before she turned and grabbed someone's arm, yanking the person forward and into view for Naruto.

"This is Sharingan Sasuke. He is also from Oto, and we have worked together quite a lot in the past two years", she said, still holding a tight grip around the guys arm.

Naruto looked at the guy in front of him. And looked. And looked. Alright then, so maybe more like stared.

But hell, he had never before in his life seen someone like this Sasuke-guy. He looked like something from a dream.

He was short for being a boy, several inches shorter than himself, but still a good two inches taller than Sakura. His body was slim, slender, rather than muscular and strong-looking. His flawless skin was pale, and Naruto could see thin blue veins underneath it, could trace the blood's flow with his eyes. Soft-looking hair, blue-black like the night sky in the end of October framed his pretty, slightly rounded face. Pale pink lips, oh-so alluring, pouted _(pouted!) _as if just waiting to be kissed (and Naruto was too willing to obey the silent request). The nose was small and feminine-looking and was cutely curved over the bridge. Dark, elegant eyebrows led Naruto's eyes to meet Sasuke's.

Deep, black, bottomless pools stared back at him, and they looked so _mysterious _as if the boy before him was _hiding _something. Not 'I was unfaithful to my girlfriend' but some _real_ secret. Something that Naruto really wanted to find out, because in that way he might be able to comfort the other who looked so _sad_.

As if he had lost something precious which he now never could have back. In the way a fallen angel would miss its lost wings and thereby the ability to fly freely in the sky. Naruto got this sudden overwhelming urge to just wrap his arms around this unknown Sasuke, this fallen angel that he had never seen before, and just _hold _him and take care of-

"What the fuck are you staring at? You're not in a zoo, you know, but in a civilized room with supposed-to-be civilized people."

The boy – Sasuke – had spoken. He had a point. Naruto _had _been staring at him, rather than just innocently looking, but what the hell did he expect when he was looking like that?

Naruto scowled at him.

Thinking about it, Sasuke didn't look so great after all. He was way too… short. Yes. Definitely too short. And way too pale. It didn't look healthy. He surely had some kind of unhealthy disease. _Better stay away from him, wouldn't want to catch it_, Naruto grumpily thought.

Just as he opened his mouth to give him a rude answer Sakura smiled oh-so brightly (nervous and uncomfortable) and began to make her way through the crowd, still not letting go of Sasuke's arm.

"Ah, Kakashi-sensei wants us to come over to him", she said to Naruto over her shoulder. "It was good to see you again, Naruto. We can talk more later."

She disappeared dragging the black-haired boy with her.

Naruto frowned thoughtfully.

_He still has a nice ass, though…_

* * *

**A/N: **Okay. I really didn't like it. It's all mushy and squishy… and writing Sasuke is a bitch, I tell you. It feels like everyone is OOC… how depressing.

I'm counting on you guys telling me if it sucks so badly you want me to re-write it. I don't mind; just throw everything you've got at me. I'm durable.

His whole chapter is more or less just an introduction of what the hell Sasuke's been up to these two years… Nothing exciting in here…


	3. Chapter 2

**A/N: **Right, I know I said it'd take some time… so I hope you were prepared for the wait.

Ahem. Well, in this chapter I have given Sakura a bit more space… I don't know whether she will have an important role in the story or not, but well… I like her, even though she seems like a cry-baby in this chapter (she was okay in the last chapter, though, so please forgive me for making her a bit OOC in this) so I gave her a couple of paragraphs anyway. If you don't like it, though, please tell me and I won't do it again. However, I wanted to give myself some room to work in and I thought making Sakura one of the main characters would help me do so… This _is _my first multi-chapter fanfiction after all, so I don't expect it to be all that good.

First part in _italics _is one of Sasuke's childhood memories. As usual.

**Warnings: **Creepy guy enter the story. Sakura crying for no apparent reason. Future shounen-ai/yaoi, whatever the difference is.

**Pairings: **Future narusasunaru. One-sided sakusasu. Will most likely be at least hints about other couples. If you have any special requests, just tell me, 'cause I haven't decided anything just yet.

**Disclaimer:** The series of Naruto is not mine, nor any of its characters. I'm merely borrowing them for this B-version fanfiction.

* * *

_**Chapter 2 – Of thoughts and deeper thoughts**_

_Sasuke stared blankly in front of him, out in empty space, at nothing in particular. Because nothing mattered anymore. Because everyone was gone._

_Everyone._

_He was all alone, and he no longer even had the strength to feel scared or lonely. All that was left was an overwhelming feeling of emptiness and even that had stopped bothering him a couple of days earlier._

_He hadn't returned to the house after he had found his parents dead on the floor. He had run to his uncle two streets away only to find him and his wife and Sasuke's two cousins dead too. He didn't understand what was going on, and his brother had disappeared._

_He had no idea where he was. What if Itachi was lying dead somewhere as well?_

_He didn't have the courage to seek help. He didn't know who to trust. Apparently someone was out there killing off his family, and Sasuke had no doubts that whoever it was would kill him too if Who only found him._

_Therefore he made sure not to be found._

_He hadn't gone to the police, he hadn't gone back to school nor visited any of his friends. He had not gone back to any of his now-dead family's houses and he hadn't spoken to anyone. As late as yesterday he had heard two women talk about the Uchiha-tragedy; about how everyone was dead, __but that the police was looking for two missing brothers. They still held hopes that they would be alive out there._

_Sasuke had been sad to hear that everyone was dead – even those who lived in other parts of town. But he had been glad to hear that Itachi might be alive. He hoped so. He hoped that his brother was fine and that Itachi soon would find him and take him away to some other place._

_Some place safe. Some place far._

_For the moment he sat on a bench under a big oak tree and watched the nothingness of the park that surrounded him._

_He was hungry and tired and cold and even a little thirsty, but he didn't know what to do about it. He couldn't afford to be found. What if Who decided to kill him too?_

_The thought scared him._

_He couldn't be found._

_He _wouldn't _be found._

_He had to wait for his brother to come save him, to take him by the hand and lead his way. And he held no doubts that if Itachi still lived, he would do so._

_A dark shadow suddenly came over him and he looked up._

_Before him stood a tall, pale man with long black hair. He had some kind of mauve painting around his golden eyes, and the smile he wore looked strangely fake._

_Sasuke fidgeted nervously under the man's gaze. When he couldn't stand the quiet any longer he bravely met the man's gaze, forced a smile and spoke up._

"_He-hello, Stranger-dono… um… Can I help you?" He looked down again and stared intensely at his feet._

_He knew that his mother would have scolded him for the stranger-comment, but he didn't really care. He didn't want to think about what his mother would have thought about anything at all._

_The man's smile widened, and grew more sinister._

_Slowly he reached out a hand, cupped Sasuke's chin and forced the boy to look at him once again._

"_My, my", he mumbled, talking more to himself than to Sasuke. "What do we have here?"_

* * *

Sasuke scowled angrily, but patiently let Sakura shove him through the door (which Kakashi kindly held up for them) that led to Tsunade's office.

"Nah, what's with that angry face, Sasuke-kun?" Kakashi innocently asked. "Was your conversation with Naruto not enjoyable enough?"

Sasuke sent him a dark glare. Kakashi smiled as if his day just had given him a big happy surprise wrapped up in golden paper and red bow tied all around it.

Feeling a tinge of irritation as his famous glares obviously didn't affect Kakashi in a satisfying way Sasuke turned to Sakura instead.

"Who the hell is he? Staring at people like that. Do I have something funny stuck on my face?"

Sakura laughed nervously and fidgeted with the hem of her shirt as Kakashi closed the door behind them. Sasuke ignored both him and Tsunade who sat behind her desk in the other end of the room with her back against the window, facing them.

"Um… He doesn't know you, Sasuke-kun… so he is unaware that you don't like people looking at you. I'm sure he won't do it again. Ah…" She looked around, desperate to find a way to get Sasuke to stop thinking about the whole thing. "Hello, Tsunade-sama. We've arrived."

Sasuke gave her one final glare before he too turned to his boss, but he left out the greeting.

Tsunade pretended as if she didn't notice.

"I can see that. Good that you could make it, Sakura, Sasuke."

They both gave a nod to show that they were listening to her pointless small talk. Tsunade nodded a little to herself, as if to confirm a thought or something similar. She then turned to Sasuke.

"I hope that you will be happy here in Konoha, Sharingan-san. I have gotten you an apartment downtown. That makes it pretty close to everything; Office, stores, all of the bus lines… Kakashi will take you there once we're done here. Have you met your new co-workers? Do you think you can get along?"

Sasuke gave Sakura a dark look from the corner of his eyes before he nodded once.

"Yes, I'm sure it won't be a problem to work with the people here. They seem ambitious and serious about what they do. That shouldn't be a problem."

Sakura gave a soundless sigh of relief beside him, and he gave an invisible smirk.

* * *

Sasuke had confronted Kakashi about the condom and successfully persuaded him into removing it from the seat before he once again got into the car with Kakashi, this time without Sakura, as she would get lift with the guy with red, triangular tattoos on his cheeks to her flat. Sasuke recalled he was called Inuzuka… Inuzuka Kiba.

He silently looked out of the window as Kakashi drove through the streets of Konohagakure towards his new home. He wasn't sure about how he felt. In fact, he wasn't sure he felt at all.

He had moved so much in his life, he had some problem actually calling his homes 'home' any longer. It was more like… places he lived in, nothing more.

Kakashi gave him a sideway glance before he started to hum to himself. Sasuke recognised the tune as _I Feel So_ with _Box Car Racer_.

The apartment complex Sasuke was to live in was grey, boring and fully in concrete.

"Good to know I'm about to live in a bunker", Sasuke commented dryly. "At least I won't have to worry about bomb attacks. I'll be perfectly safe in my protection room."

Kakashi gave a quiet laugh as he lifted out Sasuke's trunk from the back of the car.

"I'll help you with this", he offered. "You live at the top floor, for some Godforsaken reason. How come you _always _live on the top floor? I can't remember even once when you haven't."

Sasuke didn't answer but silently led the way to the lift and helped Kakashi to get the trunk in. Kakashi then hit the button, the doors closed and the lift got into motion with a slight tremble. _At least it's not playing any nerve-wrecking little melody, _Sasuke thought and sent a grateful thought to Tsunade. _And she was kind enough to get me a room on the top floor again…_

That meant he easier would have access to the roof. Sasuke had a thing for roofs. He liked them, as in actually _liked _them. He enjoyed spending his time sitting on a roof, staring down on the world below. It gave him a sense of control he knew didn't really exist. Just the feeling was there – not the control in itself. But he was happy for the brief moments he could trick himself into thinking that he actually was in charge of the situation.

Tsunade had been fast to notice this. So had Kakashi, but he still never let down a chance to complain about it. Sasuke was pretty sure that Kakashi had some morbid fetish for complaining about stupid things. It was very rare that Kakashi complained about something important, or something that he actually could do something about.

The flat itself was small – two rooms and a kitchen – but it was more than enough for Sasuke. He didn't care about stuff and as a result had very few possessions. It wouldn't be practical to have more than he already had.

His furniture had been sent here this very morning and were to arrive tomorrow before lunch. He didn't mind. He had enough insight to realize this, and had therefore brought a sleeping bag for the night.

Kakashi made sure that he would be alright for the night alone before he left Sasuke to take care of himself.

Sasuke went to the window and opened it, popping out his head and looked up. Yup, he would definitely be able to climb to the roof from here. Standing on the window sill, he was able to reach the upper window frame and heave himself up over the edge where he took a secure grip on the gutter and so gain enough leverage to swing a leg over the edge of the roof and roll onto it. For a moment he just lay there, on his back looking up at the quickly darkening sky that bent around the world, embracing it.

Then he took a breath and sat up looking out over Konohagakure.

The city lights were turned on by now, and the whole town was glittering all around him, trying to match the starry sky far up high, mocking the small click on earth that was Konoha. All the pollution from the traffic eighteen stores below him made his view fuzzy and blurred, making it harder for him to make out the contours of the grey buildings that rose up, trying to reach the clouds, that were the only things he could see in the dusk that surrounded him.

A vague smile played over his mouth. Konoha was beautiful.

* * *

"_What kind of weird guy is he anyway?"_ Naruto asked at the other end of the phone.

Sakura sighed. Somewhere deep down she had known that Naruto and Sasuke wouldn't go well together. Naruto was too much Naruto-like for Sasuke to accept, and Sasuke being Sasuke was bound to unconsciously piss Naruto off. The two people she held most dear in the world… they didn't even know each other and already they had made up their minds about the other.

"He doesn't like it when people stare at him, Naruto, and quite frankly, your stare would have made _anyone _uncomfortable. Give him a chance and please, _please_ try not to act so moron-like, okay? I'm sure you two will get along just fine… just give it some time… Sasuke-kun isn't very good with people."

Naruto grumbled something she didn't really catch. And honestly, she wasn't sure she _wanted_ to know. Naruto could have a foul mouth sometimes. But on the other hand – she was pretty used to it by now. Spending two years together with Sasuke definitely left her less naïve and sensitive than before.

"Naruto."

"_Hm?"_

"…"

"_What is it, Sakura-chan? Something bothering you?"_

"Naruto. Please be careful with Sasuke. He- He's not… What I mean is; he isn't really… Just be, will you?" She could feel a lump in her throat, and she knew her voice sounded thick with not-yet shed tears.

She snivelled.

Naruto was quiet for a moment, then:

"_Sakura-chan?" _He sounded hesitant. _"Are you crying? What is-? Do you want me to come over? Or… I could pick up some sushi on the way. It was such a long time since we last met… So much to talk about… Not only about Sasuke-teme. What about you? How have you been?"_

She gave a short laugh and felt how the tears ran down her cheeks. Why was she crying? She was home, and Sasuke was with her, and Naruto was with her and everything was supposed to be fine, perfect. But it wasn't, was it?

No, it wasn't.

Because Sasuke didn't love her. And she desperately needed him to. Because she loved him so much.

And Naruto didn't like Sasuke. She had somehow imagined that when they came to Konoha everything would be fine. Sasuke and Naruto would be friends. Suddenly Sasuke would realize how much he was in love with Sakura. They would live together. After a couple of years marry – with Naruto as best man, of course. And they would eventually have children and live happily ever after.

But there was no 'happily ever after' in her fairytale. Because her life wasn't a fairytale.

Naruto was still rambling in the other end of the phone.

"Naruto", she interrupted. "Maki's still my favourite. Hurry?"

The last word was more of a question than an order. She wanted to – _needed _to – see him. It had been so long, and she wanted to know how he had been. She wanted to talk with him about her feelings for Sasuke, even though he wouldn't understand.

"_I'm on my way right now, Sakura-chan."_

She smiled a little through the tears. She really had no reason for crying, but it already felt a little better.

Maybe she finally shed the tears of Sasuke's rejection she had denied herself for so long? That still didn't make sense, but she didn't care.

Maybe she just should do like Naruto. He had stopped trying to make sense of the world long ago. Maybe everything wasn't sensible.

* * *

After the sushi they had moved in front of the TV and now Sakura put down two cups of tea. Naruto intensely regarded the TV-program. Something about rainforests or whatever.

Sakura plumped down beside him in the sofa. She was glad she hadn't sold her apartment after she left for Oto. She had thought she'd come back much earlier than she did, and therefore she hadn't bothered to actually sell the place. It ended up with her using it as her summer-place. She came here when she had holiday and wanted to come to Konohagakure to meet up with all her old friends.

Now she was happy for her choice. Otherwise she would have ended up in a new, unknown and empty apartment just like Sasuke. His furniture would arrive tomorrow morning, she knew, leaving him without a bed for the night. She had offered him to come to her place but he declined.

He often did that.

It was a Sasuke-thing.

Not that she minded too much (she was used to it by now) but sometimes it left her feeling slightly helpless and pique.

"So", she said haughtily, just to start off a conversation. The whole dinner they had spoken about her, Naruto and everything that happened in Konoha since she last visited.

Now she wanted to speak about Sasuke. It was important, and she couldn't really talk with someone other than Naruto or possibly Kakashi… but she somehow had the feeling that speaking with Kakashi about her love-life would be even worse than sentence herself to slow death by torture.

Naruto turned his head to face her.

"About Sasuke", she continued, a light blush creeping over her cheeks.

Naruto looked puzzled for a second before he seemed to realize something and a sly fox smile came over him.

"Yeah, tell me about Iceman. He's cool?"

Sakura sent him a sharp look for the 'Iceman'-comment before she nodded.

"Mm." She went quiet for a moment before she opened her mouth again. "Naruto… I know your first meeting didn't go especially well… But it wasn't too bad either, you know. Think you could make friends?"

Naruto's grin went wider.

"Course. Just because little miss Ice Princess is all bastard-like doesn't mean I'm going to let him slip away so easily. Where did the old hag find him, by the way? I mean… wow! I'd love to go there to reconnoitre some time. I might get lucky and find his sister. If she's got an ass half as nice as his, I'd still be counted as the top-ten luckiest guy in Konoha."

He gave a laugh and Sakura felt her cheeks grow hotter.

"Naruto!" she exclaimed, mortified. "Don't talk about Sasuke-kun like that. Besides, he doesn't _have _a sister."

Naruto stopped laughing and looked at her with a glint in his bright blue eyes.

"No? Too bad. I guess staring at his ass will have to do then." He winked at her. "Why so protective? He's taken?"

She could only imagine what shade of red her face held now.

"N-no!" she sputtered frustrated. "But- _but! _It's not very nice to speak of him like that. Sasuke isn't an object to please your lusts, Naruto."

"'-kun'", Naruto said, matter-of-factly.

She blinked at him. "Huh?"

He grinned foxily. "You forgot to say '-kun' after Princess' name. You just said 'Sasuke'."

She looked at him angrily.

"Don't try to change the subject, Naruto! Sasuke_-kun _is a living person with feelings and a free will!" She emphasised the suffix in pure irritation. So what if she didn't always give the honorific? It wasn't as if it mattered anyway.

Naruto looked amused.

"Of course he is. That's not what I meant." His eyes fell on the cup Sakura had put on the small table earlier, and he looked surprised as if he hadn't noticed it until now. Quickly, he snatched the cup and brought it to his lips, gulping down all of the cup's content before he put the cup down again. "How long have you liked him?"

Well… She was pretty obvious, wasn't she? She sighed and buried her face in her hands.

"Over a year… And yes! Before you ask: yes, he knows… and he doesn't give a damn."

Naruto looked at her curiously.

"Really? Not a damn, huh? Well, whatever you say – you know him best." He shrugged and leaned back in the sofa, arms behind his head. "Didn't seem like it, though."

She didn't move for a while, and then she slowly let her hands fall to her lap.

"What do you mean _'didn't seem like it'?_ What didn't seem like what?"

He turned to her with a serious face, but it soon turned into a big, goofy grin.

"Ah, so now we're interested, eh?" She gave him a daring look and he immediately raised his hands in a warding gesture. "Okay, okay, I get it. No fucking around." He smiled brightly. "He seemed kind of… Well, I don't know the guy, but seeing how he glared at everyone else he seemed very caring for you… Or at least accepting."

Sakura rolled her eyes. Sometimes Naruto really could be stupid.

"Of course he _cares_, Naruto, but he doesn't _care _in the right way! I want him to _care _about me in the same way I _care _for him. Dammit! He wouldn't be human if he didn't _care_ for me at all by now. We have known each other for almost two years, for the love of God!"

Naruto looked at her intensely for a moment. Then his ordinary 'who-gives-a-damn?' smile came back in place.

"So? Go bug him about it. You're so adorable, not even little miss Pretty boy can resist you forever."

Sakura groaned and let her forehead hit the table.

He really didn't get it, did he?

* * *

When Naruto later that evening was standing in the shower, letting the hot water scold his skin, he still couldn't make the feeling of uneasiness go away.

Sakura really liked this Sasuke-teme. And Sasuke-teme obviously felt _something _for Sakura as well. He had seen it in those dark eyes of his. Even though it wasn't really affection, there was definitely a _something_… And Naruto wished he knew what.

He hadn't known how to explain it to Sakura, so he hadn't even tried. Instead he had said something about Sasuke 'caring' about her or whatever. Sakura hadn't been pleased. As usual she had declared him an idiot and then they had changed the subject.

However, what really bothered him wasn't the fact that Sakura obviously had fallen for this bastard Icy boy, but the fact that said boy's feelings for Sakura were unknown to Naruto.

First Naruto had thought that he just was protective toward his former crush and now-being almost-sister, but then, when he talked with Sakura he had come to realise that that wasn't the case.

He hadn't worried about Sasuke not being in love with Sakura and thereby hurt her feelings.

He had worried about Sasuke _being _in love with Sakura and thereby get unreachable for the rest of the population… himself included.

That was just ridiculous, he knew. Geez, the guy was a total bastard! Being all cold and stuff…

Naruto knew what love was, he had been in love before; hell yes! With Sakura for example. And he knew that his feelings for Sharingan Sasuke weren't love. He wouldn't fool himself to take part in some triangle love-drama if he could avoid it.

So why did he care? Sure, he had felt some kind of… _attraction _toward the new guy when they first met. He had felt a genuine interest for the boy – an unusual thing for him to feel nowadays. It was almost as if Sasuke for a split second had drawn him back to his teenage-self; the curious, caring, naïve boarding to stupidity teenager that wanted everyone to always be happy.

And Sasuke clearly wasn't happy.

He slowly turned off the spray of water and stepped out of the shower, absentmindedly wrapping a towel around his waist.

Most people ending up here had a bad background filled of tragedy and sorrow. Sasuke was most likely one of these cases.

Still, that didn't explain how he somehow managed to draw Naruto's attention without even doing anything. Sure thing was the guy _was_ ridiculously attractive, but so; even though Naruto _was _bisexual that didn't mean he felt like kissing every good-looking guy he met.

He sighed and stared at his reflection in the mirror.

"Very well, won't do any good keep on nagging about it", he told his mirror-self. "Maybe a night's good sleep will help to clear things up." And with that he went down to the business of brushing his teeth.

* * *

**A/N: **So there was the second chapter. I'm even more displeased with this one than the previous. Well, I guess it could get worse though. Tell me what you think?

And I _really _hope everyone gets who it was that found Sasuke in the flashback… memory… whatever. Otherwise you guys seriously need to refresh your memory of the whole damn Naruto-storyline!

And the song _I Feel So _by_ Box Car Racer_ is just a random song that I happened to listen to just when I wrote that part. It's real good, though.


	4. Chapter 3

**A/N: **Yes! I'm the greatest. I succeeded in updating within a week.

Actually, I finished writing this chapter yesterday… I'll be honest, I didn't have any school yesterday (we were supposed to study at home (guess who didn't)) so I wrote this whole chapter then… That's why I didn't post it yesterday. I needed some time to clear my head before I re-read it… Ahem.

This is the longest chapter I've written so far… And Sakura got some room in this chapter as well. No one complained, so I take it everyone is fine with it.

As usual; first part in _italics _is a Sasuke-childhood memory… even though I guess everyone knows that by now…

And to _yamisxn _: I thought about what you said about my grammar (I'm sorry… I know I kind of suck) and I tried my best not to do the same mistakes in this chapter. I apologize if it disturbs you. (I really need to get a beta.)

**Warnings: **Some rude language, my sucky writing and future yaoi/shounen-ai.

**Pairings: **Future narusasunaru, one-sided sakusasu. Others may appear. If anyone has any special requests: shout!

**Disclaimer: **Don't own. We should all be grateful. Sure; it would be fun to have it, but hell I would ruin the show.

* * *

_**Chapter 3; Who you not are in my eyes**_

_Even though the man hadn't done anything to deserve it, Sasuke couldn't shake off his suspicious thoughts about Orochimaru. The man had kindly brought him to his home – a house even bigger and lusher than the house of his parents. Sasuke's coal eyes had gone wide at the sight, before he remembered that it wasn't polite to ogle others property like that, and shyly had fixed his eyes on the ground before his feet._

_Now he sat before the grand mahogany table in Orochimaru's spacious kitchen and drank hot chocolate from a mug which had a pleasantly green colour._

_Sasuke quietly sipped the warm liquid. Orochimaru eyed the boy silently from his seat across the table._

_The weirdly warped smile hadn't left his lips even once._

_When Sasuke had finished his chocolate he put down the mug with a slight _thud, _and then squirmed in his seat, uncomfortable under the man's gaze._

"_Now, now", Orochimaru suddenly said in a calm tone. "Why was such a small child like you out in the park all alone at this time of the evening? Don't you know that it could be dangerous for someone like yourself?"_

_Sasuke chanced a quick glance at the pale man, before he once again settled to stare at the now-empty mug before him. He gave a nod._

"_Yes, but… I can't go home", he mumbled._

"_Oh?" Orochimaru seemed strangely satisfied. Sasuke was sure it was only his mind playing tricks on him. Why would an apparently kind man like Orochimaru be satisfied to hear that an eight year old can't go home? "And why is that? Are you lost?"_

_Sasuke shook his head._

"_No, it's not that…"_

"_Then what is it? Did you pull a prank, and now you're afraid your parents will be mad at you?"_

"_No. I… I'm not afraid that… that my parents will be mad at me… It's… It's just…" Sasuke felt his throat tighten and tears gather in the corner of his eyes._

"_You can tell me, Sasuke-kun." Orochimaru suddenly appeared at the dark-haired boy's side, comfortingly petting Sasuke's silky hair. "It's okay. Tell me. Maybe I can help."_

_Sasuke hiccupped slightly in his fruitless attempts to hold the tears back._

"_They- They're dead!" he cried, furiously rubbing his soft palms against his eyes, trying to wipe away the salty tears. "And Nii-san is gone! And now I'm all alone. What should I do?"_

_He could feel Orochimaru's hand petting his hair, stroking his back in small circles – just in the same way his mother used to do when he cried. But this was not his mother's hands. These hands were larger and icily cold – even though they were just as pale (that was a lie, these hands were sickly pale, not at all the smooth, lily-white skin-colour his mother had) and just as soft (this was a lie, too – because even though Orochimaru's hands weren't calloused, they held nothing of the love of a mother to her child when they touched his back and hair)._

_He decided that he hated those hands, and that he never wanted to be touched by them ever again. He still didn't try to stop the supposed-to-be soothing touches, though. He was so tired. All he wanted to do was curl up in someone's arms and fall asleep and keep on sleeping until his Nii-san found him and took him away to a place so much better than this._

_Then he suddenly realised that he had told Orochimaru everything. What if Orochimaru had been the Who that killed them all? He felt the panic rush over him, drenching him in a wave so strong that he was almost swept away with it._

"_Hush", he heard Orochimaru's voice whisper. "I will help you look for your brother, and in the meantime you can stay here. There's enough room for the two of us. Now, drink some more chocolate."_

_Sasuke felt shivers running down his spine at the words. Somehow Orochimaru made the generous suggestion sound so wrong._

_He watched quietly, eyes puffy and red from the crying, as the golden-eyed man poured more hot chocolate in the green mug._

* * *

Sakura half-ran in through the doors, violently shaking her head. Thousands of small droplets of water sprayed from her hair, the pink colour darkened by the rain she just had escaped.

"Oi", someone behind her shouted, and startled she swirled around to face the person. It was Kiba.

"What?" she asked, tone harsher than necessary. Geez, she was tired. "Something wrong?" she then said, not as inconsiderate as the word before.

Kiba snorted. "And they say _I _resemble of a dog. Who is spraying water all around herself like an animal, really?" He began to grin. "And on top of that – mood swings. You worried about your pet and your bodyguard?"

She stuck out her tongue at him for the words.

"What are you getting at?" She went silent for a second before she grinned back. "I'd rather think of them as my mollycoddle and my slave."

Kiba looked so taken aback at her words that she couldn't help herself and began to laugh.

Ever since she returned to Konoha with Sasuke, Naruto and he had been bickering. The first few days this had worried her to no end. But after a while she noticed, upon watching them closely, that it wasn't the 'bad' kind of bickering. It was the kind of bickering Naruto had had as a hobby when they were younger.

And she had noted that Sasuke didn't seem entirely unhappy with the squabbling the two of them exchanged on a daily basis. In fact, he seemed rather content with it. Maybe he even thought it was a nice change from the usual admiration and praise he always received wherever he came.

And they had yet to get into a serious fight. This made her relieved.

She had thought – thinking of both of their personalities – that this would have been one of the first things to happen between them. However, they had given her a happy surprise when the only 'fighting' that had erupted between them had been light shoves at each other and Sasuke occasionally giving Naruto a friendly bonk on the head.

The thought of them getting in to a real fistfight made her nervous. Both of them _were _after all professional _hit men. _And she knew that both were ridiculously good at what they were doing.

Sasuke was an unpredictable, terrifyingly fast killer – deadly in the dark kind of way. You would be dead before you even knew _where _you got hit. But even though Naruto wasn't as classy and speedy as Sasuke, he had the brute strength that Sasuke lacked, and determination that could even make Tsunade back down.

If these two really would get at it, the whole building would be torn down before either of them was satisfied, she knew.

Kiba and Sakura walked (in Kiba's case more like bounced. He had more in common with Naruto than _anyone _wanted to admit) into the lift, and pressed the button to take them to the second floor.

A homely _ping _signalled that they had arrived, and the doors opened with a _swish._

"-EAN WITH THAT, YOU BASTARD?" Naruto screamed as they stepped out of the lift. His face was flushed of rage and his usually sky-blue eyes had darkened to a deep oceanic colour, blond hair even messier than normally.

"Exactly what I said the first four times you asked, stupid. And you don't have to scream at me, the fact that you are slow doesn't mean that I have a problem with my hearing."

Sasuke sat at his desk, looking as collected as usual, not even bothering to look at the enraged boy. To anyone that didn't know him it would seem as if he was so absorbed by his computer screen that he barely noticed the blond who screamed loudly at him, and just answered the boy absentmindedly to be 'polite'.

Sakura knew better. She could (barely) make out the amused glint in his endless eyes. He actually _enjoyed _pissing Naruto off – knowing that he would be able to stand his ground if it went so far that Naruto actually tried to attack him.

Sakura didn't know what they were fussing about this time, but she could clearly see the warning signs in the way Naruto moved his hands. If she didn't stop them now, Naruto would try to hit Sasuke. And that would only be the beginning of the disaster.

"I SCREAM AS MUCH AS I WANT!" Naruto shouted childishly. Then he seemed to realise that there were some insults in Sasuke's reply that he had missed out. "AND DON'T CALL ME STUPID, TEME! WHAT THE HELL DID YOU MEAN WITH I'M 'TOO BOISTEROUS TO BOTHER WITH', ANYWAY? I JUST SAID HELLO, DAMMIT!"

Sasuke gave him a bored glance.

"And I was kind enough to answer. And since you obviously were displeased with my latest way to express your loudness, I'll rephrase it for you: you're too fucking noisy to bother with. Get out of my face. I am – unlike you – trying to do my job. You are a nuisance."

Sakura cleared her throat loudly to get the boys' attention. She didn't want them to slit each other's throats. Not really.

Sasuke had a slightly annoyed look on his face when he turned toward her, but she knew it was all fake. His eyes told her he thought the whole situation was _hilarious._

"Ah, Sakura", he greeted. "Would you please tell your friend to leave me alone? He doesn't seem to understand when I tell him. He's a retard?"

"WHAT THE FUCK!?" Naruto roared at the other man. "I'M NOT-"

Sakura opened her mouth to tell him to shut the fuck up.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP, YOU BRAT! YOU HAVE BEEN OUT HERE YELLING THE WHOLE DAMN MORNING! _SOME _OF US ARE TRYING TO DO OUR WORK, YOU KNOW!"

Too late. Tsunade had finally had it.

The blonde woman looked grim as she regarded the scene in front of her.

"Naruto, Sasuke. My office. Now."

Sakura sighed. If she only hadn't stopped to talk with Kiba. That brief moment would have made the difference.

* * *

Tsunade regarded the two boys standing in front of her desk, side by side, with a dour face. Sasuke stood calmly, slightly slouched with his hands in his pockets and waited for her to speak up.

Naruto, on the other hand, was shaking while he struggled to gain some self-control, cheeks still slightly red from his earlier outburst. His eyes still mirrored the ocean rather than the sky. The ocean – in all its glory, so strong, wild. Free.

Sasuke mentally slapped himself. He couldn't stand here drowsing off, not now. Tsunade was about to tell him off and he had to be alert so that he would know how to play his cards – all in order to get out of this as mildly as possible.

Still, he couldn't help that the blond dobe entranced him in such a way.

He didn't even know _why _he found it so _interesting _to see the guy so totally _enraged._ But for some reason he found it mirthful. Not that he ever would admit it, of course.

"So, what was all this about?" Tsunade asked shortly, her eyes on Sasuke.

"Uzumaki was disturbing me in my work, so I asked him to leave. He refused to do so, and got mad at me for asking him to", Sasuke said, no emotion showing on his face or slipping through to colour his voice. On the inside, however, he was laughing his ass off at Naruto's fuming expression.

"What!" the blond boy exclaimed. "Where did _that _come from? That is- _That's not true!" _he howled, pointing accusingly at Sasuke.

Sasuke merely lifted an eyebrow at the offending finger.

"What part of it was _not _true?" he asked nearly inaudibly.

Naruto immediately opened his mouth, but no words came out. For a moment his mouth opened and closed, making him look like a huge fish as he searched for the lie in Sasuke's words. When he realised there wasn't any, he turned to Tsunade.

"Okay, so he didn't lie. But he didn't tell the whole truth either!" he quickly defended himself. "Sasuke-teme was acting like a total bastard, saying rude things and stuff…" He slowly trailed off at the sight of Tsunade's unforgiving face.

"I see", she said coldly. "And instead of just leaving and letting Sharingan-san be the only one acting like a five year old, you decided that starting to yell would be a great idea."

Sasuke glared at her for the five-year-old comment, but didn't say anything.

Naruto once again seemed at a loss for words.

"Well, I- He… That is…" He rubbed the back of his head, clearly embarrassed. "I didn't think of that." He gave a nervous laughter.

Sasuke snorted.

"You didn't think at all", he remarked dryly.

"That is enough!" Tsunade bellowed, slamming her fist into her desk with a satisfying _bang. _"I'm tired of you two wrangling all the time. Neither of you have done anything else since Sasuke arrived a week ago. We can't have it like this. In your profession you need to be able to get along with _anyone. _I don't care how much you despise each other, but we need to solve this _now. _A weakness in our unity can be fatal and both of you _know this, _otherwise you wouldn't be here!"

Sasuke said nothing, but he had straightened his back a little during Tsunade's speech – the only thing indicating that he took her words seriously. Naruto looked ashamed and stared at his feet.

The silence stretched out. The soft screeching of Tsunade's chair when she sat down was deafening.

"So what do you want us to do?" Sasuke finally asked, knowing Tsunade wouldn't go on until the question was out. And Naruto was too stupid to get the hint of them asking.

Their boss, the almighty supervisor of their community, sighed deeply and buried her face in her hands.

The seconds stretched out. Naruto scraped with his feet at the floor. Sasuke was very proud of himself – he somehow managed to stand perfectly still and expressionlessly wait for Tsunade to say something.

"I want you to together find all information you possibly can about this machine", she said at last, looking up and beginning to ruffle around among all the papers scattered over her desk. "Or at least we _think _it is a machine. We don't know much; however, as Sharingan-san already know", she gave Sasuke a sharp look, "the codename for it is _Shiza."_

Sasuke gave a short nod.

Naruto looked confused.

"We don't know where this machine is located, nor do we know of how much importance it is. What we _do _know however, is that we don't really want Sasuke in the same building as it. He just might find it necessary to blow it all up." She gave him a cool look.

Sasuke inwardly groaned. So she was still mad at him for that? Dammit, it wasn't even _him _who blasted it. It had been Sakura. He didn't think that reminding Tsunade of this would improve her mood, however, so he kept quiet.

Naruto was now at a total loss.

"So, basically", Tsunade concluded, "I want you two to – _together _– gather as much information about _Shiza _as possible, starting today. You may use any ways necessary. I want a report on my desk this very afternoon on how you have decided to work and in which way you preliminary has decided to approach the matter. Don't do anything too drastic or illegal, we're not desperate." She let her eyes wander back and forth between the two young men.

"To be able to pull this off nicely and _discreetly _you need to know each other well. The other's weaknesses and strengths. All in order to get as much as possible out of your teamwork and fill out each other's flaws. You can spend today to do that, but remember – _if I don't have the report on my table by this afternoon, you two are going to pay for it dearly. _You are dismissed."

She gave them a careless wave with one hand.

Two boys stared at her – both equally speechless, equally disbelieving, with jaws hitting the floor. Was she serious about this?

* * *

Black met blue and Naruto felt a pull behind his navel, as if an invisible hook tried to jerk him forward, over the table and closer to Sasuke.

Sasuke with the darkest eyes he'd ever seen. Sasuke with the pretty face and alluring lips. Sasuke who sat right in front of him.

Sasuke whose glare was one of the scariest he'd ever seen. And Naruto had seen a lot of glares over time. More than most.

"So…" He trailed of, not really knowing what to say.

Sasuke lifted an eyebrow sceptically.

"Yes?"

His voice was oh-so sweet. Naruto cleared his throat and tried again.

"So, Sasuke-san", he said, in an attempt to begin anew. Some politeness maybe would do the trick. "We're stuck with each other for a while, now, because of granny Tsunade, eh?" He tried a friendly smile. Maybe the bastard would melt a little if Naruto only smiled sunny enough.

"Seems like it, Naruto-kōhai", Sasuke sneered. "I'm not one for self-pity, but I must say that this is almost too much even for me."

Naruto could feel a vein pop in his forehead. That insolent little _shit. _How _dare _he? And Naruto who had actually made an _effort _to be _polite _toward this bastard!

"_Kōhai?_" he repeated heatedly. "Kōhai? Why, you… Bastard!"

Sasuke smiled mockingly.

Naruto fumed.

"Okay, we need to get this over with, _Ohime-sama", _Naruto hissed angrily. That wiped the smirk of Sasuke's face.

He scoffed grumpily.

"Very well", he said, suddenly business-like. "Best way to get to know each other, Naruto-chama, ought to be asking questions and getting truthful answers, correct?"

Naruto pouted slightly.

"I agree, Ohime-rin."

Sasuke sent him a Look, but didn't say anything.

"How long have you been into this?"

"Two and a half years with this… A few more years with similar stuff", Sasuke replied simply.

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Really? How old are you?"

"21, turning 22 this summer."

Naruto nodded absentmindedly. That meant Sasuke had been working for Tsunade since the age of nineteen… And 'a few more years' with 'similar stuff' before that. Meaning the guy had been _at least_ seventeen when he got into this shit, possibly younger.

_Just who are you?_

On the other hand… Naruto himself had begun to work for Tsunade at the age of eighteen, being taught by Kakashi when he was seventeen together with Sakura. Maybe there wasn't too much of an age-difference after all.

"What did granny Tsunade mean with that? 'Blowing up buildings' or what it was?" He looked at Sasuke with a curious glint in his eyes.

Sasuke groaned.

"That was… my latest mission… together with Sakura."

Naruto perked up at this. "Oh, really? What, what? Tell me, Sasuke-rin, tell me!" He more or less jumped up and down in his seat, eager to hear whatever it was Sasuke was going to tell him.

Sasuke frowned at him.

"We were supposed to steal a document about _Shiza, _however, things got a bit out of hand and we blew up the building. And Tsunade got nuts."

Naruto stared at him. Sasuke really, _really _wanted to squirm. One problem though: _Uchihas do not squirm!_

"That was the reason we were sent here in the first place", he continued as Naruto didn't say anything. "Anyhow… What's your place in the unit?"

"Fielder", Naruto answered. "So basically, if I'm to be of any use for information-gathering, then we need to do it on the spot."

Sasuke sighed. "There's a problem with that, if you haven't noticed yet, Naruto-chama." Sasuke picked up the pack of papers Tsunade had handed them earlier. "This may look as a lot, but basically, it says nothing. We don't know the location of _Shiza."_

Naruto sat quiet for a moment. "So… What do you do best?"

Sasuke put down the bunch of paper before he answered. "Just like you, I'm on the field. However…" He hesitated for a split-second before he met Naruto's eyes. "I know some basics about hacking and research on the computer… Some even think I'm good at it."

He went silent.

"Well", Naruto urged. "It's the best shot we have until we find some clues. I won't be of any help, though. I'm hopeless with computers. Think you can find anything?"

Sasuke shrugged. "I'll try. Depends on how well-protected any files about _Shiza _is, and since we're not even sure _what Shiza _is, it could be a problem. I'm no pro."

He went silent. Again. But this time he began to chew at his bottom lip as well. Naruto felt something in his stomach flicker. Sasuke really _was _pretty like that, looking all thoughtful and concerned.

"Ah", Naruto said, before he got the urge to kiss Sasuke again. The same urge he had felt the very first time they met. "'S you best at? In-field, I mean? Wouldn't be good if we're specialised at the very same thing…"

Sasuke let go of his bottom lip, and Naruto wanted to whine. He _had _looked incredibly cute biting it.

"Close combat fighting, preferably with long-range back-up."

Naruto grinned. "Long-range, eh? Good for you. That's right up my alley."

Sasuke scrutinised him closely before he gave a nod and… his expression softened, as if… It wasn't a _smile, _just… more like… Naruto didn't have a name for it; it was just that Sasuke's eyes became softer, _warmer, _and the corner of his mouth didn't really turn upwards – it was more like a _hint _of turning up, and his whole face seemed to almost glow… even though that wasn't the right word for it either.

In fact, Sasuke more or less didn't move a muscle, but still the whole air of him changed.

This lasted for two precious seconds, before a slight scowl was back in place on his face.

"Great, so even if we don't find anything useful, at least we know that we _might _be able to work together on the field", Sasuke concluded. "Just make sure you do a good job watching my back, Naruto-chama." A smirk. But this smirk was different from the ones he had received before. This smirk was almost gentle – how someone managed to _smirk gently _was beyond Naruto, but that was the best way he could find to describe it.

Maybe Sasuke, who never smiled but only smirked, had been forced to learn how to smirk in different kind of ways – including gentle.

Naruto gave a foxy grin.

"Don't worry, Sasuke-hime. I won't let a scratch fall on you during my watch."

* * *

**A/N: **Well… It gets better. I'm almost-happy with this chapter. But I read this _wonderful _fanfic the other day by _DancingDragonBlaze. _It was called _And the Dead Shall Always Hang High… _It doesn't have anything to do with this fic, but seriously guys, it is a masterpiece in itself. You should read it.

What I wanted to say is: I just realised that I've still got a long way to go with my writing…


	5. Chapter 4

**A/N: **Well, it took some time, didn't it? Please bear with me. I have a lot of things piling up right now.

I'm sorry, but Naruto barely shows in this chapter. It is entirely focused on Sasuke (in one way or another). But I'm sure you guys will get an (happy?) surprise in this chapter anyway! :smiles:

And… it seems as if I (finally) have come up with a half-ass, extremely not-original plot. But, dear readers, it is still a plot! :celebrates:

First part in _italics _is a childhood memory of Sasuke's. As always. You know the rant.

**Warnings: **Language, future shounen-ai/yaoi. Err… Can't think of anything else. You guys already know about creepy snake bastards…

**Pairings: **Future narusasunaru. One-sided sakusasu. Any special requests (except leesaku) will be granted.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the series of Naruto. Do I look that creative to you? Besides, I can't draw.

* * *

_**Chapter 4; Of fears and worries**_

_Sasuke watched the grey-haired man with fascination. The man looked right back at him._

_They were both comfy in Orochimaru's ostentatious living room; the gray-haired man in the immense leather sofa before the TV, and Sasuke on the deeply purple and cream-coloured carpet on the floor, tightly hugging the big white teddy bear he himself had picked out when he had gone out shopping with Orochimaru in the market. It was named Chidori._

_He knew he was a bit too old for teddy bears (being eight and all) but he had pretended that he wasn't, and Orochimaru hadn't said anything when Sasuke resolute pointed at the bear and declared that he wanted it. The man had just smiled, told the woman that he wanted to buy it, paid and handed the bear to the little boy at his side. The woman had smiled warmly at Sasuke and told Orochimaru that he 'was blessed with an adorable son'. Orochimaru had grunted. Sasuke hadn't said anything, but hugged the big bear closer._

_Since then he had dragged the bear with him everywhere. Orochimaru let him._

_The grey-haired man shifted on the sofa and turned his eyes toward Orochimaru, who comfortably relaxed back against the wall, observing the two others with an amused glint in his eyes._

"_You want me to be his teacher, Orochimaru-sama?" the man asked, sounding somewhat uncertain. "Why not just send him to a private school abroad? Wouldn't that be easier?"_

_Orochimaru shook his head._

"_I want him close by. Besides, I don't trust strangers enough to leave them such an important task. I would do it myself, but I still have other duties to tend to. You are the only other person I trust enough, Kabuto. Do you mean you can't do it?" He paused. "Or do you mean that you _won't _do it?"_

_The grey-haired man – Kabuto-san – frowned slightly at this._

"_No, it is fine. I will do it. But he still needs company, Orochimaru-sama. It is not good for children not to have friends to play with. He needs to meet children his own age."_

_Orochimaru gave a wave with his hand._

"_I'll tend to that matter as well, Kabuto. Do not worry. Sasuke-kun will be just fine." He smiled wryly and let his eyes wander to said boy, still sitting on the carpet._

_Sasuke had lost interest in the new man by now. They still talked about his educational matters, and this was something that he didn't find important. He didn't want to go to school. School was stupid. This new man who just might be his soon-to-be teacher surely was stupid too._

_He glared a little at the man in the sofa and – just for good measure – sent a gloomy glance at Orochimaru as well. Why would they make him? He didn't need education!_

_Grumpily he got up onto his feet, still squeezing Chidori in his arms, and padded out of the living room and set course to Orochimaru's study._

_He spent several hours in this room every day, as Orochimaru seldom let him out in the garden without him coming with the child. And Orochimaru was an important person who needed to work numerous hours a day. And he usually did that in this room._

_And after the first week, which Sasuke eagerly had devoted to exploring the huge house, he had taken it to spend his time in here together with his well-doer._

_Orochimaru had been kind enough to 'give him' a corner of the room, where he had various books, toys and games to occupy himself with while Orochimaru stared at the boring numbers that covered his computer screen._

_Sometimes Sasuke seriously doubted the man's sanity._

_But he had been nothing but kind to Sasuke all this time… until now that is._

_Now he suddenly had decided that Sasuke needed to be taught a lot of stuff. Like math, history and English._

_He sat down on the floor, still cuddling Chidori, and sulked. Silent footsteps could be heard behind him. They stopped._

"_Sasuke-kun?" It was that Kabuto-san. He sounded hesitant._

"_What?" Sasuke muttered._

_He could hear some rustle, and then Kabuto sat beside him, smiling apprehensively. Sasuke turned to him, staring at him attentively with big eyes._

"_I'm to be your new teacher, Sasuke-kun. Do you like learning?"_

_Sasuke tetchily shook his head. Kabuto gave a small sigh._

"_What _do _you like then, Sasuke-kun? Games? Puzzles? Drawing?"_

_Sasuke was quiet for a moment as he thought this over. What _did _he like? He liked his Nii-san. But he had a feeling that that wasn't what Kabuto meant._

"_Music", he finally answered. "I like music."_

_Kabuto looked slightly taken aback for a second before he gave a malleable smile._

"_I'm sure we will be able to make friends, Sasuke-kun. It won't be a problem, I'm sure."_

* * *

Naruto impatiently drummed his fingers against the steering wheel as he waited for the traffic lights to turn green.

He cursed all the people in Konohagakure that were out driving at the very same time of day as him, he cursed the fact that once he was home he would have to wait _three _minutes before his instant ramen would be ready to meet his chopsticks and he cursed Sasuke for being a) a bastard, b) a pretty bastard and c) too pretty and bastard-like to leave Naruto's mind.

And somehow he got the feeling that it wasn't Sasuke's fault that Naruto got more and more infatuated with him every time they talked.

Dammit. He really _wanted _to blame Sasuke.

They had done research about this _Shiza_-thing for three days now, without any progress. What really had happened were them bickering in comfortable companionship, Sasuke doing all the work on his laptop and from time to time telling Naruto to 'help' by go get Sasuke a coffee.

Naruto huffed every time Sasuke sent him to do such a degrading task, but in reality he didn't mind all that much.

Sasuke drank his coffee black.

Naruto had learned this by now. In fact, he had learned a lot of things about Sasuke.

The lights turned green. Naruto drove.

For example he had learned that Sasuke was _not _in love with Sakura. He had been glad to hear that. Not that he showed it of course. That would have been embarrassing. What he had wanted to do, though, was jumping around the room singing some happy tune.

Instead he had stared at Sasuke for a while and then told him that he was weird – unusually so, even for a bastard.

Sasuke had 'hn'ed. That was another thing Naruto quickly had learned about the man. When he thought something was too irrelevant or too stupid to even give a witty comment, but he still wanted to show that he kind of listened, he 'hn'ed.

Naruto had been fast to decide that one of Sasuke's biggest flaws was the fact that the guy didn't _speak. _How was Naruto supposed to communicate with someone who didn't _speak?_ The guy didn't even know the fucking use of body language and facial expressions.

That was not the kind of flaws that mattered in work, however. Naruto had eagerly learned about Sasuke's strengths and weaknesses in-field, just as Tsunade had told him.

What he had found out was not that satisfactorily. Sasuke was so unstable that Naruto impossibly could figure how he would act in different real-life situations. He blamed it entirely on Sasuke's asocial attitude.

Sasuke was good at close combat fighting, preferably with long-range back-up. He still was a loner, though, and took on one-man jobs rather than not. He was a fast thinker, and if Plan A, B and C all failed Sasuke always was quick to think up Plan D. He didn't have much experience when it came down to computer-work, but he was fairly gifted, so he made it work anyway. He had some major flaws when it came down to caution. He was impulsive, and even though he had learned teamwork by now, he didn't hesitate to sacrifice his mates if he thought he would be on the gaining side in the end. He had eyes for the smallest details and always planned so many steps ahead that the opponent didn't stand a chance. He was _not _good at long-range combat, unless it involved explosions. Sasuke obviously had a thing for fire. Naruto almost went so far as to dare to call him a pyromaniac.

In short, Sasuke was not good at this sort of thing. Information-gathering was something for more reasonable people to do – people more sane.

Also, Naruto didn't enjoy playing chess with the guy. He lost all the time. Every. Single. Time.

It was through chess, though, that they had learned most about each other. It had been Sasuke's idea. He claimed that the way of thinking was pretty much the same on the field as in chess-play.

Naruto had heard of this before. And he knew it was true – because _he himself _always thought 'If this was in real life, I would have'…

So, basically, they had ended up playing chess hours on end while talking about their likes, dislikes, things they had done, things they wanted to do and, of course, what they were supposed to do about _Shiza _(all right then, so maybe Naruto had done most of the talking… or all of it. But still, Sasuke had at least been there _listening). _All this on Day 1 of their co-working. The other days were spent with Sasuke sitting with his laptop, Naruto trying to talk w_ith_ him instead of _to _him, and occasionally Sasuke sending Naruto to fetch coffee for 'the only one working'.

Naruto sighed as he drove into the parking belonging to his apartment complex. _It could be worse, _he told himself as he turned off the engine. _In fact, it's going quite well. I mean, he hasn't even once told me to be silent._

* * *

Sasuke lay sprawled all over the worn-down couch in Kakashi's home, lazily watching as Kakashi moved around the kitchen making coffee.

Kakashi had invited him over for dinner. That was not unusual. Ever since they first got to know each other, Kakashi had taken it upon himself to act all Father-like toward Sasuke. Only from time to time, though, when it suited him.

Sasuke often found this irritating. Dammit, he wasn't a kid anymore, and didn't need someone to look after him. But somewhere deep down he felt thankful as well.

He had never really gotten the chance to 'have' a parent before, his own dying when he was little and after that… well, Orochimaru hadn't exactly been a good 'father', had he?

Kakashi exited the kitchen and went over to Sasuke on the couch.

"Move it, kid, my hands are full."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at him before he realised that Kakashi didn't mean that _he _should move from his snug spot. He wanted Sasuke to remove the stuff on the TV-table so that Kakashi could put down the mugs.

He sighed lightly and stretched out a lazy hand to tug at some books. They fell down on the floor.

"There you go", he said contented and recoiled his hand.

Kakashi gave him an unpleased look. "Thank you so very much", he muttered dryly under his breath as he put down the mugs and sat down in the armchair.

They were quiet for a while, comfortably so. Sasuke welcomed the silence. After three days with Naruto it felt as if his ears would be constantly swollen for over-use for at least three years. Maybe more.

"Why so moody?" Kakashi asked, suddenly, voice soft. Not demanding in anyway, just wondering.

Sasuke turned his head slightly, so that he could have eye-contact with Kakashi as they spoke.

"That Uzumaki Naruto", he whinged. "He's going to be my death. He's rude, inconsiderate, not doing any work and I won't get rid of him until we've found much enough information about _Shiza _to please Tsunade. And that won't ever happen, as it seems now." He regarded Kakashi with large eyes, full of hopelessness. "Seeing how I'm doing everything on my own, we won't do any progress as it is." He gave Kakashi a meaning look. "But if _someone _told Tsunade that-"

"No", Kakashi calmly interrupted, taking a sip of his coffee. How he managed to hide his face from Sasuke's prying eyes without turning his head was beyond Sasuke.

"But-" Sasuke began to protest.

"I won't do it", Kakashi stated.

Sasuke glared at him (and he did _not _pout, even though Kakashi got that amused spark in his eye that always appeared when Sasuke did so) for a while, until he realised that it didn't help. Kakashi was not a person to give in to childishness. Change of tactic it is.

"Still, he's not doing any good. He's just distracting me from my work, making it even harder to dig up something useful… Dammit. What _is _this _Shiza_-thing anyway? Why's it so important?"

Kakashi shrugged.

"No idea. I don't work with that. However", his eye suddenly turned sharp as he looked Sasuke square in the eyes, "you _are _supposed to fix this, Sasuke, distraction or not. Tsunade wouldn't give this job to you if she didn't think you could handle it."

His eye lost its momentarily intensity, and Kakashi leaned back in the armchair.

"Besides, you're not supposed to get distracted in the first place. It's your own fault if you let Naruto get under your skin. That just proves how much you've got left to learn."

Sasuke felt himself blush slightly at the older man's words.

Kakashi was right… as usual. It was his own fault. And sitting here complaining about the whole task wouldn't change anything. It would still be up to himself to put this into order. Not Kakashi. Not Tsunade. Not even Naruto, dammit, for he was too much of an idiot to be given that kind of responsibility.

Kakashi looked at him from the corner of his eye. When he thought the boy had considered this fact enough, he gave a soft sigh.

"It is always the same, Sasuke-kun."

Said boy looked up at him with a questioning look.

"In work, in love, in games and in the small every-day things. In life in general. It is always the same. In the end, it's always up to oneself to sort things out." He smiled at the bewildered young man. "But don't worry. If the rest of the world can live by this rule, then so can we, ne?" His eyes shifted to Sasuke's untouched coffee cup and he gave a friendly scoff. "More coffee?"

* * *

During the whole week, they hadn't come even one tiny step closer to find out the whereabouts of _Shiza. _Naruto still hadn't been useful to anything other than fetching coffee from time to time when Sasuke needed two minutes of peace and quiet. He had never met anyone with such a big mouth. Didn't the guy _know _how to just _shut up?_

And all he had managed to find out was that _Shiza _had been a big project by some rich dude whose name was still unknown to them, and who obviously just had done it for his own experimental entertainment. To cut it short; Sasuke did _not _see the reason why he would have to waste so much time searching for information about it, and at the same time sacrificing his sanity as he tried to tune Naruto's voice out.

Simply put; as Sasuke strolled across the square close to the centre of Konohagakure, he felt very much unhappy with how things were progressing.

It was a Saturday – not that it mattered, they weren't free on week-ends like normal people, but they still had the right to take one day by choice off every week. He and Naruto had agreed upon Saturday for this week. So Sasuke had taken the opportunity to take a stroll around the neighbourhood, and since it was nice weather, he had expanded it to the park a bit further away. Now he was on his way home to have lunch before he would go visit Sakura. She had somehow made him promise a visit on his free day.

As he crossed the square, he spotted something sitting on the stone-stairs in front of the fountain on the far end. Or rather – he spotted _someone._

Someone he hadn't seen since he was a teenager. Someone he often had thought to be dead by now, just as everyone else. Someone that he once had been close enough to even call something as foreign as a friend. Someone who he uncountable times this week had sent a grateful thought for once upon a time teaching Sasuke about computers and software and hacking and technology as a whole.

Someone that was Shikamaru.

Sasuke hadn't even realised that he had stopped dead and stared at said man.

_He's… _alive? he thought, baffled. Then he realised that Shikamaru _of course _was _alive. _The guy was a fucking genius! No one could touch him. What was weird was… _He's here?_

Shikamaru straightened on his spot and quickly looked around, probably sensing someone observe him, and his eyes met Sasuke's.

It was like in a movie – one of those bad Hollywood productions where you always knew _exactly _what was going to happen next. Time stopped. Or maybe it went in ultra rapid and only _their _time stopped as they stood there, watching each other as the world ran by hundreds of times faster than what was normal, from across the square.

Neither moved to walk over the square, to come closer to the other, to sit down and talk after the three years that had passed since they last laid eyes on each other.

Sasuke didn't know for how long they froze. It could have been a split second, minutes or fucking hours. But it didn't matter – it wouldn't have made any difference.

He couldn't move. That was not true. Sasuke could _always _move. He simply didn't want to, afraid (not _afraid,_ more like unwilling) to break the frail moment of contact. The only contact with his old life, his _real _life, he'd gotten in more than two years.

He swallowed hard.

Then, on the other side of the square, Shikamaru slowly, oh-so slowly, raised one hand. Never once did his eyes break away from Sasuke's.

It was a greeting. A greeting from his past finally catching up to him. He should have known better. He wouldn't be able to run away from his life, his reality, forever.

But Shikamaru was on his side, right? Shikamaru and him and Chouji. It was them. Or was it?

With Chouji dead there was no longer any bond tying the other two together. And in the end it had been Sasuke who left, not Shikamaru, even though he had been so certain it would be the other way around.

_Shikamaru. Why are you here?_

Shikamaru put down his hand as slowly as he had raised it.

Sasuke swallowed again, nodded once to the man, turned on his heel and left.

He could feel Shikamaru's eyes burning into his back.

As soon as he was out of sight for the other man he broke into a run, and didn't stop until he was safely inside his apartment with the door carefully locked behind. He called Sakura and told her he was tired today, and that he wanted to stay home resting for the day, and promised her to come visit tomorrow after work.

The rest of the day he just lay on the floor beside his couch, staring up at his ceiling.

_Shikamaru. What are you doing here?_

_Chouji._

_Are you lonely?_

* * *

Sakura wasn't sure what to think. What to do. How to feel. What was right.

What was true.

She did know, however, that Sasuke was upset.

He had sounded perfectly calm when he called her, but Sasuke was not one to go back on his word for something as inconvenient as tiredness. When anyone else would collapse of exhaustion, Sasuke would keep on going as if nothing had happened.

He was stubborn like that.

No, something must have happened. Something that stirred up his emotions in a way he couldn't control, and at such occasions Sasuke wanted to be left alone.

Even if that meant breaking promises of coming over and have dinner with Sakura.

She was worried now. She knew that despite Sasuke's fragile appearance, he was stronger than most mentally. He would sort whatever it was that bothered him out by tomorrow and go to work as usual, come with Sakura to her place afterwards, teasing Naruto to near-insanity for his own amusement and simply be Sasuke.

Sakura knew this, but that didn't stop her from wondering.

_Will he be okay? For real? And _what _was it that happened?_

She was well aware that thinking about it would be a waste of time. She wouldn't be able to help Sasuke if he didn't tell her the problem, and one thing was deeper carved in the 'Holy Laws of How Things Work in the Life of Haruno Sakura' than all the others: Sasuke did not do sharing. He simply didn't.

He would _never _even _hint _about what it was that troubled him, unless it either had something to do with her or she somehow was part of his plan to solve it, and her awareness of the matter was required for his solution to work.

It was a Sasuke-thing.

Giving up, she fell down on her couch and stared up at the ceiling.

_Hell, that guy will be my death, _she mused. _I'll get grizzled in my thirties because of him – if not sooner!_

She turned on the couch; her face turned to the turned-off TV, and stared impassively at the thing. It stared back. She could almost hear it laughing at her for acting like such a schoolgirl all the time.

_I'll never grow up when Sasuke is around, will I? _she thought, slightly depressed. _I'll be a grey-haired, un-married woman with the mentality of a young schoolgirl still yearning for the love of her life when I'm thirty. How miserable can I become?_

She sat up on the couch, placed her elbows in her lap and rested her chin in her hands.

If only _she _would come back. How long had it been since she left anyway? Four years? Or was it only three? She felt a vague taste of bitterness far back in her throat. It was the bitter taste of guilt. How could she have forgotten?

Suppressing a sudden need to go check it in her old calendar she gave an annoyed groan and rose from the couch, walking over to the window. Longing she looked out on the darkening world outside. It pulled up such a contrast to her own warm, light flat.

Ino had been gone for so long. She couldn't help but feel slightly left behind, even though she was pretty sure that the other girl sent her a thought when she had time to spare. But still… Suna felt so far when they weren't allowed to keep in touch.

She abruptly turned away from the window and went to the kitchen to make some dinner. A girl needs to eat, even if her guest has too much to think of to turn up.

* * *

**A/N: **So, what did you think? Personally, I'm displeased with the end, but (dammit!) I wanted to make it clear that Ino's _not _in Konoha… And since Sasuke doesn't know Ino and Naruto's not close enough to her to care… Well, I needed to somehow squeeze it into Sakura's part… where it didn't fit. :P (_Why _can't I write in the way I originally planned?)

Review?


	6. Chapter 5

**A/N: **All right, so this took forever, I'm sorry about that. I really didn't know what to do with this. So it turned out a little strange. Nothing too bad, though, I think.

There is some narusasu-ness in this one… kind of… nothing real though, so don't get your hopes up. Since this story (actually) has a plot, the love drama will only be a side story. It will still take a lot of room though, since it is fun to write.

First part in _italics _is a memory of Sasuke's. (And it's a cute one! )

**Warnings: **Language, future yaoi/shounen-ai. Quite a lot of OOC-ness in this chapter, since Sasuke is damn impossible to write right. :sulking:

**Pairings: **Future narusasunaru. One-sided sakusasu. (I feel bad for her, though. Maybe I should find someone pretty quick to pair her up with?)

**Disclaimer: **No own. No sue. Deal.

* * *

_**Chapter 5; Of friends and love**_

_Sasuke looked around the playing ground, clutching Chidori tightly to his chest and feeling a little bit lost. All around him children of various ages ran around playing, laughing, screaming, crying. He felt as if he somehow didn't fit in amongst them. It was a lonely feeling, and he suddenly just wanted to go back home again, even though he had been looking forward to this all day._

_A wave of unforeseen shyness overcame him and he quickly turned around just to make sure that Kabuto still was there, behind him._

_And he was. He hadn't left. Kabuto smiled at Sasuke and gave a little wave with one hand before he went over to a bench and sat down, book ready to be read._

_Sasuke swallowed and looked uncertainly around the playground again. There were so many children. And everyone seemed to have someone to play with. He scraped his feet at the ground and lowered his eyes._

_He had never been one to make first contact._

_Which he didn't need to, it seemed, as he suddenly was bumped into from behind and found himself laying face-first on the ground with someone he could not see on top of him. Chidori was jammed between himself and the ground._

_Ineffectively, he tried to crawl out from underneath whoever it was that was laying on top of him._

"_Get off!" he cried, angrily. "You're heavy! You're suffocating me! Get off me!"_

_Whoever muttered something and then Sasuke felt the weight rolling off him, Whoever laying beside him. He turned his head to look at the person._

_It was a boy his own age, with brown-reddish hair, pale skin and aquamarine eyes._

_They stared at each other, neither moving nor blinking. They would probably have been stuck like that for the rest of the day if it wasn't for a blonde girl coming up to them._

"_Gaara!" she said, sounding a bit concerned. "You okay?" She threw Sasuke a quick glance. "You didn't get hurt, did you?"_

_Sasuke shook his head mutely._

_She nodded a little as she bent down and grabbed the other boy's – Gaara's – arm and pulled him to his feet. Then she stretched out her hand to Sasuke._

_He looked suspiciously at it._

"_Well, are you going to take it or should I just leave?" the blonde girl asked impatiently._

_Sasuke took her hand and let her pull him to his feet._

"_Thank you", he mumbled._

"_No problem", she said, light-heartedly. She then glared at the redhead. "Why don't you apologize, Gaara? After all, you could have hurt the kid."_

_The boy looked impassively at her for a long moment before he turned his face toward Sasuke. He didn't say anything. Sasuke wasn't sure what to do._

"_Gaara!" the girl exclaimed exaggerated. Then she sighed and turned to Sasuke. "Well then, I apologize in my little brother's place. Please forgive his rudeness. He certainly didn't mean to knock you off your feet. It was an accident." She bowed slightly._

_Sasuke smiled tentatively at her. "It's no big deal."_

_She sent him a sparkling smile before she disappeared in the mass of colourful jackets and autumn leafs._

_The two boys looked silently at each other for a while. Then the red-haired boy bent down, picked up Chidori from the ground and vainly tried to dust of the white bear._

"_Here", he mumbled and held out the teddy toward Sasuke. "I'm Gaara", he added when Sasuke took the bear._

"_Sasuke", he answered timidly._

_They were quiet a little while longer. Sasuke began to anxiously look around for some way to escape the other's gaze without being rude, when the boy suddenly spoke up._

"_The swings are more fun if you are two."_

_Sasuke looked at Gaara, surprised. Was that an invitation? He gave a vague smile._

"_Sure they are."_

* * *

Naruto looked impatiently at Sasuke, who non-stop typed on his laptop, still trying to find out something interesting about _Shiza. _Naruto had given up on finding anything by now. It clearly wasn't anything to find seeing how they had worked with this for one week without finding out one thing.

He restlessly shifted around in his seat.

When Sasuke suddenly stopped typing he hopefully looked up at the black-haired man.

"You're awfully quiet", Sasuke said.

Naruto felt his heart drop. Sasuke hadn't found anything. Sasuke just found it disturbing that he didn't say anything. But, dammit, he hadn't anything left to say. He had tried everything to make conversation with the man, but Sasuke hadn't even _looked _at him.

Wait. Did Sasuke just say that he was quiet?

Had Sasuke actually _said _something because of Naruto's silence?

Did that mean that the only way to make the boy talk was to _not _talk to him?

What the hell? What kind of logic was that!?

He glared at Sasuke. Sasuke looked back with a hint of curiosity visible in his dark eyes.

"Well", Naruto practically spat, "you didn't seem to enjoy me talking the past week, so I figured I maybe just should keep quiet."

Sasuke looked slightly taken aback… for about one and a half second. Then he smirked.

"Good thinking. You got the hint way faster than I thought you would. Only one week. I'm impressed." He returned to his typing.

Naruto's glare got more heated.

"Yeah?" he burst out angrily. "Just because you're an asocial bastard doesn't mean everyone's going to go mute around you. If my talking disturbed you so much, why didn't you just say so?"

Sasuke's fingers paused. "It didn't", he muttered.

Naruto stared at him.

"What?" he finally choked out dumbly.

"It didn't disturb me", Sasuke said, eyes still not leaving the computer screen. "I've lived through worse, believe me. Nothing you say or do is likely to disturb me enough to be worth the effort of making you stop. Seeing how you're rather slow, that would take too much time. Maybe if you were a tad bit cleverer."

Naruto fumed. That was…! He didn't even have words for it. He had never met anyone who just shoved up insults in people's faces like that… except himself. But _he _didn't shove insults in his _own _face.

Then he thought a little of what Sasuke actually had said. _'It didn't disturb me.' _Well, that didn't prove anything, but in the right (wrong?) light it could actually be regarded in a kind of positive way. Was it a hint that Sasuke _liked _Naruto talking? Seeing how Sasuke had been the one bringing up the subject it at the very least proved that he didn't _mind _Naruto rambling on and on about nothing and everything.

"Um… so… err…" Naruto stuttered, trying to think of something to say.

Sasuke (who had been busy doing research on his laptop, surprise, surprise) paused once again, this time glancing up at him. "What?" he asked, impatiently.

"Um…" He had no idea what to say. The only thing he could come up with would be the football match he'd seen on TV yesterday, but somehow he thought that Sasuke wouldn't be interested.

"If you don't have anything to say, then keep quiet", Sasuke snarled. "What I said didn't by any means mean that I _want _to listen to you talking. Why don't you go fetch me a coffee? You don't seem to have anything better to do anyway."

Naruto gulped and was out the door before he had even realised that he ever got up from his chair.

When he realised this, however, he nearly turned around and went back into the room where Sasuke sat waiting for his coffee, just to tell the bastard _exactly _what he thought about being pushed around like some kind of pet. Seething, he did go fetch a coffee anyway, before he grumpily returned to Sasuke-teme.

"Here's Hime-sama's coffee", he gritted out between clenched teeth. "Did Her Majesty wish for anything else?"

Sasuke didn't even spare him a glance.

"I want this Saturday off as well, usuratonkachi", he stated – the idyllic picture of indifference. "That's alright with you?"

Naruto blinked once. Twice. Thrice. Then he realised that Sasuke had _asked _him if it was alright with him. What the fuck?

He cautiously sat down on the edge of his chair, keeping a wary eye on Sasuke.

"What's with you today?" he wondered.

Sasuke looked up at him, something resembling of confusion swirling in his eyes.

"What do you mean? You're making it sound as if _I'm _the one acting strange. _You're _the one being too quiet. It made me uneasy, so I thought being nice to you would lighten up the mood." He shrugged. "Apparently I was wrong. I promise not to be nice to you ever again, if that's what you wanted."

"No, no!" Naruto quickly reassured him. "It's not that I don't appreciate it… I just… You know…" He trailed off.

Sasuke raised an elegant eyebrow.

"I'm fine with Saturday off", he assured lamely.

Sasuke nodded. "Good."

"Well I… I'm…" Naruto squirmed in his seat.

Sasuke looked at him questioningly. "What?"

Naruto took a deep, calming breath.

"WouldyouliketodosomethingonSaturdaywithme?" he blurted out. Sasuke stared at him.

"Pardon? I didn't catch that."

Naruto blushed. This was the most embarrassing thing he'd done since high school.

"Well, I thought that… Maybe you'd like to do something… when we're having the whole day off. And… it would be good to get to know each other… a little more." His voice grew quieter with every syllable, and in the end his voice was barely a whisper.

Sasuke looked stunned. If Naruto hadn't been so mortified he'd probably find it funny. Now, however, it just made his blush turn a deeper shade of red.

Then Sasuke's cheeks got a light tinge of pink. Naruto watched, amazed. Did Sasuke _blush?_

_Ha! Take that, Hime-sama! _he thought, triumphant. _Naruto the Great has once again succeeded to do the impossible; making Princess blush, but this is not enough – mission: Making Sasuke-hime Blush even More Than He Already Does._

Sasuke cleared his throat. "Well… I did ask for Saturday off for a reason, you know. I'll be busy… Sorry."

Naruto blinked, his blush fading away slowly. Then he gave a foxy grin and leaned closer to Sasuke who (still slightly blushing) inched away.

"No? You sure? I can assure you that I'm a better shot than most. Why don't you turn down your date and go out with me instead?"

Sasuke's blush deepened. The happy little devil in the back of Naruto's mind made the victory sign.

"Ahem, well, actually Naruto… I'm going to see someone…"

Naruto's grin turned predatorily. Sasuke seemed to get even more uncomfortable.

"It's a friend!" he squeaked when he realised his mistake. "A friend, mind you! Who I haven't seen in quite a while… so I can't… go out… with… you."

Naruto leaned in closer. Sasuke inched away a little further.

"But you _would _if you didn't already have a date?"

Sasuke turned impossibly red.

"No! It's not a date, dammit! I'm just going to meet up with an old friend. And…" He looked around the room, obviously distressed. "Why do we have this conversation in the first place?"

Naruto got a mischievous glint in his cerulean eyes.

"Why Sasuke-chan, I thought you wanted me to talk, just as normal? You were uneasy when I didn't, remember?"

Sasuke looked as if he'd be happy to die on the spot.

"Well, I didn't… I didn't… Don't _call _me that!"

Naruto laughed. "Oh no? What do you want me to call you then? Sasu-chan? Or just Sa-chan? Or should I stick to the Hime-sama?"

Sasuke tried a glare, but with the blush he just looked like a pretty school-girl sulking.

"I'd _prefer _it if you'd call me by my _name_", he said as icily as he could muster.

"Sasuke-chan it is then", Naruto declared happily. "So, _Sasuke-chan", _he sent Sasuke a playful smirk, _"would _you go on a date with me if you hadn't a date for Saturday already?"

Sasuke tried and failed to gather some composure.

"For the last time; it is _not _a date." He met Naruto's gaze, cheeks still prettily pink. "And no, I wouldn't have gone on a date with you even if I wasn't busy. I'm not gay."

Naruto didn't press the matter further, but for some weird reason he couldn't understand, it felt as if his whole world broke down into a big heap of dust and filth.

* * *

That Saturday Sasuke still couldn't stop thinking of the talk he had had with Naruto earlier that week. He couldn't believe that Naruto actually had asked him out. Was that guy for real? Or was it some weird joke? Most likely it was. Naruto seemed like the kind of person who would pull such a trick.

He sighed and squared his shoulders, looking out over the small town-square. He had hoped that Shikamaru would be here, just as last week. But today was a cold and grey day, even though it was the latter half of April by now. No sun shone through the thick mass of clouds covering the sky, and a chilly breeze made the people hurrying across the square wrap their jackets closer to their bodies, even though the wind wasn't all that strong.

Shikamaru might have thought it to be a bit too troublesome to get his ass over here when the weather wasn't all that nice. Sasuke smiled sarcastically to himself. Troublesome. Shikamaru always thought everything was troublesome.

Or maybe he wasn't in Konoha any longer. Maybe he had gone, telling the world that Sasuke was in Konohagakure. That Sasuke was here. That he was hiding – not dead.

He had been thinking about it the whole week, but finally decided that he wouldn't go to Tsunade just yet. He'd prefer to fix this mess by himself. It had nothing to do with his new fake-life anyway, so he wasn't all that eager to drag Tsunade into it.

So he had come to the decision of trying to contact Shikamaru. Which wouldn't be possible unless Shikamaru turned up here today. Which Sasuke had been so sure he would. Which he hadn't, even though Sasuke had been sure of it.

_Hn. I should've gone with Naruto on a date anyway, then, _he thought grumpily, putting his hands in the pockets of his dark brown coat. _Even if I'd have to put up with the idiot, I'd at least get a decent lunch… maybe._

As it was he had come to the square at ten o'clock, and stayed there in his apparently vain hope that Shikamaru would turn up. Now it was nearly two in the afternoon, and all Sasuke had gotten for lunch was a hamburger and a soda from the hot-dog stand. Sasuke was very much Not Satisfied with where this day seemed to be heading.

He was just about to give up and leave when he sensed someone behind him and swirled around.

Shikamaru looked lazily at him from top to toe.

"You look frozen", he stated.

"No shit", Sasuke muttered grouchily. "I've been waiting for you for nearly four hours. _Four!"_

Shikamaru didn't even blink.

"Well, I reckoned that if I'd be a little late, then _I _wouldn't be the one standing here freezing. Geez. How troublesome this is." He scratched the back of his head still letting his eyes travel over Sasuke. "You've changed. A little."

"It's been _three years, _Shika", Sasuke sighed. "People do tend to change."

"You used to be shorter", Shikamaru continued as if Sasuke hadn't said anything. "And skinnier. You're well-paid I guess."

Sasuke sighed again. "Look, this really isn't the place to talk about it. Come with me."

He began to walk the way leading to his apartment. Shikamaru trailed behind.

"Where are we going?" he asked after a while.

"My place", Sasuke said edgily, still snappy for having waited in the cold for so long. "We need to talk, and it should be safe there."

He didn't need to look over his shoulder to know that Shikamaru gave a nod and then turned his eyes to the sky, probably dwelling thoughts about how 'troublesome' all of this was.

They walked the rest of the way in silence, the only time any of them saying anything was when Shikamaru first laid eyes on the apartment-complex where Sasuke lived.

"It a fucking bunker", he muttered.

Sasuke didn't answer, but he smirked slightly as he remembered that his reaction had been the same when he saw the place for the first time.

Well into the apartment it felt as if a tension they didn't knew they'd felt left and Shikamaru once again opened his mouth to speak.

"Your taste is still the same though. It's a bit plain."

Sasuke looked around the room. It was a little empty. But he didn't need more things than he already had. Filling up the apartment with fluffy pillows and expensive vases simply wasn't a Sasuke-thing to do.

"Spartan", he scoffed. "It's called Spartan, not 'plain'."

Shikamaru smiled. "Well, then. It's a bit Spartan." He looked around once again. "How long have you been here in Konoha?"

Sasuke didn't answer at first, but led the way into his tiny kitchen and pointed at the table. Shikamaru obediently sat down in one of the only two chairs.

Sasuke began to jostle around the kitchen, making coffee and scrambled eggs. He was starved, dammit.

"Three weeks this Monday", he finally said, putting down a plate with scrambled eggs and sausages in front of Shikamaru. "I'm starting to regret coming here, though."

Shikamaru sent him a look, but didn't ask. Sasuke felt a certain warmth (happiness?) of being around him again. Someone from his past. Someone who understood him better than most. Someone who didn't push, didn't ask, didn't pull.

It was so worth not going on a date with Naruto.

Wait. Full stop. Rewind.

Why did he think of that _now? _Of _course _it was 'so worth not going on a date with Naruto'. He wasn't gay, dammit! He had always liked girls, _only _girls. He should be concentrating on the fact that Shikamaru sat at his kitchen table, not that some weird guy had asked him out which he _of course _(and rightfully) had turned down. Right? Right.

"Why are you here?" he asked bluntly.

Shikamaru briefly stopped eating and looked at Sasuke in an almost offended way.

"I didn't come because of you, if that's what you thought."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow, silently urging him to continue. Shikamaru sighed.

"I don't work for him any longer, Sasuke. I can't prove it to you, all I can do is hope that you believe me."

Sasuke sat quietly for a moment, watching Shikamaru closely. Well, that was that. Take your pick. Believe or not believe. Shikamaru _had _been his friend though. He knew Shikamaru fairly well, or at least he _had _known him. Back then Shikamaru had despised that man even more than Sasuke himself did.

"Even if I chose to believe you", he began slowly, "it doesn't explain why you are here."

Shikamaru smiled slyly. "Same as you, probably. Keeping out of sight. Hiding. Dammit Sasuke, just because you are his favourite doesn't mean he doesn't look for me too."

"_Are?" _Sasuke repeated sharply. "You mean he's still not giving up?"

Shikamaru looked as if Sasuke had turned purple and had small aliens jumping out of his ears.

"_Giving up? _In which universe are you living, Sasuke, 'cause I sure as hell would like to join. Orochimaru doesn't know what 'giving up' means, and as long as _you_ are dangling in one end of the string, there's no way he's ever going to let go of the end he's holding."

Sasuke felt like crying. He had known that he couldn't run away forever, however, having it shoved up his face like that made it seem more realistic. He couldn't hide. Not from him. Not forever. It was impossible.

"But", he protested, even though he knew that it wouldn't help to argue with _Shikamaru _about it, "but why can't he just pick someone else? Dammit! There are millions of kids out there. Why does he _have _to have me?"

Shikamaru shrugged. "He's creepy like that. He's always been a bit obsessed when it comes to you, hasn't he?"

"'A bit'?" Sasuke bellowed incredulously. "'A bit'? He's… seriously… It can't be healthy for him!"

"Why would you care whether it's healthy or not? Shouldn't you be happy if he got sick?"

Sasuke glared at Shikamaru.

"No, because it won't be the 'stay in bed and be a good boy' kind of sick. It would be the 'I'm even more obsessed with Sasuke than before, so let's go get him' kind of sick. That would be very much extremely _bad. _I'm not sure I'd be able to fend all of his cockroaches off, you know."

Shikamaru was silent for a moment. "Is that the reason why you're starting to regret coming here?"

"That is one of the reasons, yes", Sasuke answered between swigs of his coffee.

"The others are...?"

"My work is sucky, you suddenly came back into my life and a guy at my work asked me out for a date."

Shikamaru looked as if he was torn between tearing his hair (which wasn't a Shikamaru-thing to do) and laugh his ass off (which wasn't a Shikamaru-thing to do either). In the end he went for the much more Shikamaru-like reaction of simply giving a scoff and mutter something about 'troublesome'.

"Guys asking you out for dates is something I thought you'd be used to already", he commented sloppily. "Me turning up shouldn't be _that _bad." He sent Sasuke a daring look. Sasuke shrugged. "Why is your work sucky?"

"I'm supposed to do some research about some stuff… and hell if I find anything."

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow. "What the hell? What do you work with?"

"Not your business", Sasuke replied nonchalantly. Shikamaru didn't press the matter.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, both lost deep in thoughts, sipping their coffee. Sasuke was the one to break the peace first.

"Do you know anything? About him?"

Shikamaru didn't move for a while, just sat there, staring down into his lap.

"No", he said at last. "No, not really. Despite what you might think, I never went back to him, Sasuke. Not after you left. I doubt I know anymore than you do."

"Any guesses, then?" Sasuke urged.

Once again Shikamaru remained unresponsive for a while. Then he met Sasuke's eyes and gave a half-smile.

"Loads. I won't share them all; it would take too much time."

Sasuke gave a nod.

"I think he's in Oto. Don't know why he'd choose there of all hell-holes to stay in, but well – he always was weird. Maybe he found something interesting there or maybe it's just because neither the police nor the government really cares what people do there."

Sasuke wrinkled his eyebrows. Oto? Maybe it was a good thing he'd left after all.

"He's definitely up to something", Shikamaru continued. "I've heard a lot of different things, probably rumours he has spread out himself. So I don't trust any of them. Probably all false."

Sasuke gave a nod once again. "So… what do you think he does?"

"Same he's going to do to you if he ever gets you", Shikamaru answered, leaning back in the chair, serious look on his face. "I think he's 'practising' or whatever you want to call it. They have reported kids missing there a lot more frequently than usual. Guess that's his doing."

Sasuke stared at him, wide-eyed. "No way", he whispered, unable to believe it. "He'd never be so bold about it. He'd be much more discreet."

Shikamaru shook his head.

"That was before, Sasuke. That is the Orochimaru from our time. The Orochimaru nowadays is far more powerful, he doesn't need to hide. As long as he stays in Oto, he can basically kidnap children right from the street in broad daylight and no one would be able to do a thing about it. Welcome to reality. He's becoming a dangerous enemy. I advise you to either go back to him by free will or run further away than this." They stared gravely at each other for a second. "The Orochimaru of today has longer tentacles than you think. Probably longer than _I _think too."

Sasuke groaned and let his head hit the table.

"Shika", he said slowly, staring into the table. "Do you know _what _he's going to do to me if he ever gets me?"

He could _feel _how Shikamaru stiffened at the other side of the table.

There was a long silence before the brown-haired man replied.

"No. I don't know." Shikamaru's voice was quiet, but clear. "But I have a few guesses."

Sasuke raised his head and looked at Shikamaru.

"Care to fill me in?"

Shikamaru looked at him thoughtfully for a moment.

"No", he said then, calm and confident. "All of them are plain guesses with not the slightest hint of a fact to back them up. You make your own guesses if you want to dwell a theory. I advise you not to. He's not a pleasant man, and whatever he has on his mind won't be enjoyable."

Sasuke nodded. He could see Shikamaru's point.

Shikamaru rose from the table.

"I'd better get going. Do you have any idea how long you're going to stay?"

Sasuke rose too, but shook his head at Shikamaru's question. "Not a clue. Anything from two hours to ten years. Not longer, though. I'd get restless."

The brown-haired man smiled idly.

"I guess. You always hated being still." He went out of the kitchen and to the door, grabbing his jacket and stretching out his hand to open the door, but paused before he reached the knob. "Just one more thing, Sasuke."

Sasuke straightened and watched his (former?) friend warily.

"Uchihas don't tend to live long; I think you've noticed that. They have a tendency to die suddenly and brutally. I would prefer if you didn't follow that trend." He shot the thunderstruck Sasuke a look over his shoulder. "Look after yourself… Uchiha."

He disappeared out the door.

* * *

Sakura looked questioningly at Naruto when he fell down on her couch with a tired sigh. He had seemed pretty depressed all week, though she couldn't understand why. And just some twenty minutes ago he had called her, telling her he was coming over to her place needing some comfort.

That was something he hadn't done in quite some time.

She was somewhat worried about the blond man by now, wondering _what _had made him so down for a whole _week. _It had to be something serious.

Naruto gave her a miserable look.

"Can I ask you something?" he more or less whimpered.

She blinked surprised, before she gave a nod and a weak smile.

"Sure."

"What do you do when Sasuke turns you down all the time? I mean… you keep going as if nothing has happened. Don't you ever feel… you know… like trash?"

She stared at him. Had Naruto gotten rejected by someone? And was all over low about it for a whole week? Wow, whoever it was really must be _someone. _Naruto wasn't one to fall hard for people. Last time _that _had happened had been when he was in love with her.

"Um. Well", she began, "I know that he still cares for me. So I guess I think – or well, more like hope – that I still have somewhat a chance to be with him. Someday, somehow… maybe." She smiled cautiously. "Did something happen, Naruto?"

He glanced at her. "No… well, yes, I guess. But it's not as if… You know, I think I might like someone." He threw her another glance. "And that someone turned me down when I asked him out for a date. And today he is–"

"_He?" _she interrupted. She knew that Naruto told her at several occasions that he was bisexual, but she never had _understood _that he was. Imagine Naruto together with another guy was… alien to her. "It is a guy?"

Naruto looked irritated and a little hurt at the tone she had used.

"Yes, he is a guy. Something wrong with that?"

She smiled and held up her hands. "No, no! That's not what I meant. I just thought that it was… whatever. I guess there's no doubt now. You _are _bi."

"I already knew that", he huffed. "Anyway, as I was saying, today he is on a date with someone else. And I feel like crap."

She sat impassive for a moment before she realised that she was supposed to say something, do _something, _to cheer him up.

"Well, he…" She trailed off, not knowing what to say. "He already has a boyfriend then?" she ended up asking, despite knowing that it was the wrong thing.

Naruto groaned. "I don't know! Well, I _do _know that he said that he's not gay. So I guess it'd be a date with his _girl_friend. Even though he said he'd just meet with an old friend. But still…"

Sakura waited a little while, seeing if he'd say more, but when he didn't she decided to break the silence.

"If he said it's just a friend, why not believe him?" she asked. "Keep your hopes up; it might've been just that: seeing his friend. And about him saying he's not gay… well, you can't win if you don't try."

Naruto looked pitiable. "But he doesn't even _like _me. He doesn't even _talk _when I'm around. He _hates _me. Just like… Just like _Sasuke._"

Sakura rolled her eyes.

"Don't be silly. Sasuke-kun doesn't hate you. So this guy whoever he is probably doesn't either. I don't think it's _possible _to hate you. You're too dense to hate."

Somehow that seemed to make Naruto feel a little better.

He turned his face toward her and smiled jadedly.

"You don't think he hates me? Really?"

She smiled warmly. "No way. If not even Sasuke-kun can bring himself to do it – and believe me, it doesn't take much to make Sasuke-kun hate someone – then this guy doesn't either. He _can't _be worse than Sasuke-kun. Then you wouldn't have fallen for him, no matter how good-looking."

Naruto's smile turned somewhat strained.

"No, he's not worse. Only just as bad."

* * *

Sasuke was feeling rather upset when he arrived at work the day after his meeting with Shikamaru. How come everyone knew? _Everyone _seemed to know. Was he so obvious? Was it really enough for them to just look at him and then confidently be able to say: "Yup, he's an Uchiha, all right."

That was three people now. Three people are a crowd. _Why _was it so impossible for him to keep it secret?

He would be found in no time if his secret got out. And then he would be royally screwed.

He took a deep breath as he walked into the lift, taking him to the upper floor. It was totally empty in Office. He had come in earlier for the simple reason that he couldn't sleep anyway, and besides – it wouldn't hurt him to have a while to concentrate on the research without Naruto breathing in the back of his neck.

Naruto. Dammit. Another thing fucked up in his life. Just what he needed. Not.

Still, he couldn't stop wonder just _how _serious Naruto had been about that dating-thing. It was hard to tell when the blond was joking and when he was serious. And that was something that made Sasuke even crankier than before.

What was worse was the fact the he couldn't pin down his _own _feelings either. He was sure he was straight. He'd never been interested in men like _that _before. But when Naruto had leaned in so close… It hadn't felt _all _that bad. More… nervy.

And when Naruto had stopped… flirting?... with him he had felt almost disappointed. As if he somewhere had hoped that Naruto would be stubborn enough to talk him into it.

He stopped in his tracks when he noticed that the light in Tsunade's office was turned on.

All thoughts of Naruto and his own feelings for the dobe flew out the window.

_Is she already here? Or didn't she leave Office in the first place?_

Once again Sasuke toyed with the thought of telling Tsunade the full meaning of keeping him here, and once again he disregarded the idea. He would keep her out of this for as long as possible.

Silently he padded into the room he and Naruto had taken to occupy whenever they were at Office, sat down contentedly in the brightly (hideous) turquoise couch and opened his laptop. Then he tried his best to gather his thoughts and went down to business.

_Just you wait. I'll find out something about that _Shiza _eventually._

* * *

Naruto arrived at Office with a feeling of invincibility. He wasn't sure what he felt for Sasuke, but he did know that he _would _ask him out for real today. He'd even go buy flowers if he'd have to!

However, when he strolled out of the elevator, his close-to-divine impression shattered. This was because Sasuke more or less jumped him.

"Naruto! I've found him!"

Naruto sat on the floor with a happily blushing and nattering Sasuke in his lap. _What the fuck? _was the first thought flying through his head. The second was: _Sasuke looks undeniably pretty when he blushes. _The third: _Why doesn't he sit in my lap more often?_

Then he realised that he hadn't heard a word of what Sasuke had said, as he had been busy admiring the other man's face; the sparkling eyes, rosy cheeks and pliant lips. How Sasuke managed to look so _happy _without even a _hint _of a smile was beyond Naruto. _How does he _do _that? Smiling with his whole face, except the lips?_

Sasuke didn't notice, however, and continued talking about someone… some guy that he had found.

_Why would I want to listen about some bloke?_

And finally Sasuke seemed to realise that Naruto didn't get the 'good news'. Perhaps his blank face was a give-away?

Sasuke seemed displeased, gracefully rose from Naruto's lap and glared at him.

"Why aren't you happy? We have looked for this guy for nearly two weeks, and you don't seem to care in the least."

Naruto blinked and crawled to his feet.

"What guy?" he asked as he dusted off his clothes.

Sasuke stared at him for a moment before he scowled. "Haven't you listened?" He grabbed onto Naruto's wrist firmly and dragged him toward the small room they had stolen as their own 'Secret Base for Research of _Shiza' _and shoved him down on the couch.

Then he sat down beside Naruto and pointed on the screen of his laptop.

"There", he said. "The guy who invented _Shiza. _Or at least owns _Shiza. _Or well… we don't know that either, but at least he has _something _to do with _Shiza." _Sasuke looked uncharacteristically satisfied. "What a little peace and quiet can do. I should come here early more often."

Naruto, who had started to read about the man shown on the screen as soon as Sasuke pointed it out for him, froze.

'A little peace and quiet', huh? What did he mean by that? Did it mean that he didn't want to work in pair with Naruto? Well, _that _of course was no news… but he hadn't thought that Sasuke actually _wished _for Naruto to just leave.

_But he doesn't, _he resolute told himself. _He started to talk to me a few days ago because I was unusually quiet, and just now… didn't he practically sit in my lap just to tell me about this guy?_

Feeling a tad more confident Naruto went back to his reading about the man they had been looking for.

_So you are the one making the experiment _Shiza? Naruto thought as he looked at the man's picture. _Well, I hope you had fun, because we're going to have a little chat about it, you and me._

* * *

Sakura stared at Sasuke who stared right back at her from across the small table.

They were sitting in a small Italian restaurant, waiting for their food.

And for the umpteenth time Sasuke wondered _what _exactly he was _doing _here. Even when he thought back on the events of today, it didn't make sense.

He had gone to work early.

He had found out about the guy – the only clue about what _Shiza _was and where it was they had so far.

He had told Naruto (who was an idiot and hadn't seemed _half _as ecstatic as he should).

They had looked up everything they could find about the guy.

They were on their way home.

Naruto had just started to say something when Sakura turned up.

Sakura said she needed to speak with Sasuke. Alone.

Naruto had said some stupid joke.

And now, here he sat with Sakura.

He couldn't help but wonder… had she managed to trick him into a date? Because if she had… he'd be seriously down in the dumps.

Their food arrived. They still hadn't said a word.

_What the hell does she want? _he thought impatiently as he viciously attacked his pasta with fork and knife. _She drags me off to some restaurant, saying she needs to talk to me, but when we arrive all she does is staring at me! This is freaking unnerving._

"So, Sasuke-kun", he heard Sakura say and immediately looked up. "How does your work with Naruto go? You're not bickering still, are you?"

This couldn't be it. She couldn't be serious. Was _this _what she wanted to talk about?

He regarded her with an unreadable expression, and his voice was emotionless when he answered.

"It's okay. I guess the moron has managed to dull me enough with his never-ending chatter, so I simply don't care any longer."

She winced. He felt a small jab of guilt.

"Oh", she breathed. "I see. Well, um, that was…" She looked around the restaurant as if searching for a way out of the room, out of Sasuke's presence.

He couldn't blame her. He wasn't an especially nice person to have dinner with, was he?

"I wanted to talk with you", she said quietly, "about him."

He raised an eyebrow. About Naruto? Why would she want to do that? He didn't ask, however, just silently waited for her to continue.

She lowered her eyes, bit her lip and pushed some pink strands behind one ear.

"He is a little special", she began.

Sasuke snorted. "I've noticed", he muttered.

She ignored him.

"But he doesn't mean anything bad. Naruto wouldn't hurt a fly. I know that he can be a bit childish… coaxing reactions out of even you. But he isn't a bad person. Normally, I'd say Naruto deserves whatever you throw at him… But right now, I'd like you to consider what you say and do in his presence." She looked him square in the eyes. "Naruto is going through a tough time right now. Someone was a bit harsh on him, and Naruto's a real softie underneath that hard shell. For the time being he's quite vulnerable."

She took a deep breath, as if she gathered courage to say what came next.

"If you hurt him now, Sasuke-kun, I'll never forgive you."

* * *

**A/N:** Wow! This is a long chapter. Like… sixteen pages in Word. :gasp: (No wonder it took a long time to put together. Yes! I got myself a reason for being lazy!)

And isn't Sasuke adorable when he blushes? Kind of uke-ish… :P But whatever. I told you there'd be OOC-ness in this one.

Who was happy to see Gaara? Who do you want Sakura paired up with (if you want her paired up with anyone)? (Lee is not an option, sorry.) Who wants to see more of Shikamaru? What am I supposed to do with this fic? I don't know, you tell me. And I tell you what to do: review!


	7. Author's Note

Hello everyone

Hello everyone!

I'm sorry to say that this is not the chapter you probably hoped for, but an AN only. I just wanted to let you know why it has taken so long since my last update, and also why it will take a little longer before there is a new chapter up. Well, the reason is simple. My computer crashed.

I had written more than half of next chapter, and now it's all lost, along with all my other works, pictures, music, films and whatever more I had on there. And I got slightly depressed. And I have to re-write the chapter all over, and I must admit that I don't look forward to it. It was a funny chapter to write, but it was hard and about twice, or even three times, as long as my regular chapters… So yeah. It was a lot of work, even though I didn't get around to finish it.

Please be patient. The chapter will be up, but it might take some time. I'm sorry for the delay, and as soon as I get around to write again I will update. Sorry again, and thank you for your understanding.


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